This may be a bit offtopic, but I'm wondering if any of the people that made it into the beta (I didn't) would be willing to UL an ISO of the Corel distro somewhere. I'd love to get my hands on it.
It's too bad you're an AC because more people would be liable to back you verbally if you have the sac to post your name.
Regardless, I've never really cared much about the speaker. I just listen to what is spoken.
I agree with you. Trying to cram a livelihood down a woman's throat isn't going to make anyone, save Gloria Steinem, happy.
People readily concede physical differences between men and women but when the mind enters the debate, it suddenly becomes a different argument. As if the brain isn't a physical mass...
If people would stop concentrating on this bizarre numerical idea of equality that we have adopted (i.e. there should be a gender/race proportional amount of doctors, lawyers, etc. in a society) and instead foster the inherent strengths of a person we would all be happier.
There was a law suit brought against Sears a few years back by a woman's group that accused them of not hiring women to work in their Lawn and Hardware departments. Sears said they tried, but women simply didn't want to work in those areas. It went to court and Sears won, but the total legal bill was $20,000,000.00 Now everytime I buy a tool from Sears, a few cents goes to that damn lawsuit that proved what was already known.
"Of course the fact that he was beaten in jail..."
He was? I never heard about that. I heard that another hacker that was imprisoned had his jaw broken by another inmate that wanted to use the phone he was on, but not Mitnick.
I've seen the inside of an eMachine. Aside from having a very clean layout, the machine sucks from a hardware standpoint.
#1) They use Samsung drives. Any hardware tech has seen far and away more than his fair share of Samsung drives fail. I swear if someone gave me a Samsung drive, I wouldn't accept it. If I did, I'd sell it to my worst enemy.
#2) They use TriGem motherboards. TriGem? No thanks. I'll pass.
I happen to like the unrealistic standards. It gives humans a goal to shoot for. We are one of the last, perhaps THE last generation that will not benefit from genetic engineering.
Our kids may and certainly their kids will benefit from superior genetic sequencing. In that sequencing can be included:
Big, firm tits Nice, round, tight asses Long, muscular legs (incapable of developing arthritis) Flat stomachs (and the ability to eat anything you want) High cheek bones, light-colored eyes, any hair color they want
and on and on and on...
Those unrealistic standards aren't too far away from being realistic. Keep 'em high.
The people that are rendering these virtual models have become extraordinarily good at making them look real. They are a litle too perfect, but they aren't too far away from something that could fool much of the market.
It would be an interesting sway if the modeling world was overtaken by CGI. Then, perhaps, the exploitation of beautiful women all over the world will halt.
If you can call big money, great drugs, lots of traveling and fabulous parties exploitation...
Talisman
Man is the only animal capable of blushing, and he is the only one that needs to. - Twain
Most (all?) of the cool, easy to remember domain names were taken long ago.
However, what kind of ching would an e-mail address such as god@heaven.org or satan@hell.org fetch?
I'll bet people would pay bucks for it. Granted, most of the cool e-mail addresses are taken as well, but I wonder if people realize their potential value.
I secured evil@hell.org along with a few other unique addresses to find out.
The admins of some of the popular domain sites may have never given thought to the revenue stream something like this could generate. All they would need to do is setup a mail server and sell user accounts at inflated prices.
You'd find people willing to pay $20.00 per month for penguin@linux.com, I'd bet.
Parents should be the ones raising their children. Period.
Not true. There are many unfit parents on the planet.
Most are in the DECENT to GREAT range, however several never should have been allowed to reproduce.
I don't mean the obvious cases (child molesters, abusers, etc.) either. I also mean parents that raise children that have no respect for others.
We, society, have to deal with these psychos when they are full-grown. If the parents aren't going to teach their kids right from wrong, you are out of your mind to think society should stand quietly by and let these kids turn into monsters.
As for the porn issue in and of itself, I'm torn. I saw hundreds of porno mags and tapes while I was growing up due to the fact that my friend's dad owned a XXX book store.
I turned out relatively OK, although I am admittedly a bit of a pervert. My friend, however, is honestly fucked up in the head when it comes to sexual issues.
Was it the porn? Who knows. I don't think it was, but then again, what else would I think?
The talentless suits of the world are ensuring their financial survival by monopolizing creativity. It has been this way for eons.
From reports I've read, artists get about $1.00 per CD sold and it costs roughly 17 to print and package a CD. So, subtract $1.17 from the average $17.00 cost of a good CD and where does all that money go? Into the pockets of money-grubbing suits.
These lame asses couldn't play a chord or sing a note if their worthless lives depended on it and they reap the most benefit from the talent of others.
They will be quick to say that if it weren't for their business savvy that the music industry would never have become what it is. To a degree, this is probably true.
ENTER: The Internet
The Internet has obsolesced these monkeys by giving artists a direct outlet for their music. Sites like MP3.COM would fall over themselves trying to help any willing artist bring their songs to market this way, so the technological aspect is covered.
The billing model would be something of a leap of faith. I personally believe if they marketed downloadable songs at say 50 per MP3 file, people would pay it. Since any encryption scheme _WILL_ be cracked eventually and people have been pirating music since dual cassette decks were widely available, there really isn't much of a risk.
Make the price so reasonable that any self-respecting person will pay it. The artists stand to make more this way since they don't have a money grubbing businessman between them and their fans. Metallica doesn't need to know how to encode, upload and distribute MP3s for this to be successful. The boys over at MP3.COM and sites like it will gladly do the work for them and charge a very modest fee compared to the current gouging of the record industry.
The only people that stand to lose out are the talentless businessmen, hence their massive canipcion fit.
Must suck not having any true worth in life, eh RIAA?
I've heard Gates' fortune estimated between $90 - $110 billion. Considering that most of the world doesn't yet have computers, I wonder what the odds of Gates being the first ever trillionaire.
Any econ people out there care to comment?
Man is the only capable of blushing, and he is the only one that needs to. - Twain
I've examined many corpses from both sexes and of many races.
Have _NO_ illusions. There _ARE_ physical differences between races and sexes, aside from the obvious ones.
For anyone to think that these differences are of no import is inane.
You're correct in thinking that admitting such a fact will be difficult due to the societal and political ramifications, however should the fact never be widely accepted has no bearing on its accuracy. (e.g. the flat Earth people)
Before I'm labeled a racist or sexist (or both) allow me to expand a bit on my view of the world.
I truly don't care if a person is male or female, of any color or creed. However, when you fully embrace this concept you must understand that you can no longer defend people for the same reasons.
You can't say 'blacks are the same as whites' and then support affirmative action. I have a black friend that absolutely refuses to accept any hand-out/hand-up offered by the government. He went so far as applying to college as a white just so he wouldn't receive preferential treatment. THAT is true character. THAT is an individual.
Our society is renowned for its participants struggle for individuality. However, we don't seem to have a firm grasp on what individualism truly is.
"The only animal capable of blushing is man, and he is the only one that needs to." - Twain
I have been both a geek and a popular jock during high school and college.
Up until my senior year in high school I was an unmitigated geek. I didn't know how to fit in. I didn't understand the mentalities of the people around me and I had a very small circle of friends. Small as in me and one other guy.
I was 6' tall but only 130 pounds. I had bad skin and an overall gangly, dorky look. Big joints and thin limbs. All knees and elbows comin' at ya. I was smarter than most of the people in my school (students and faculty) but I was a chronic underachiever. I NEVER took drugs, yet was viewed as a druggy. I was picked on by almost everyone.
I went to school in a rough section of Miami. Some of the lowlights of my Jr. and Sr. high school years were:
- having students spit in my face while lying in a casket during a school Halloween party. I volunteered to be the corpse because no one else wanted to do it. Good call on their behalves.
- being choked on the PE field by a guy almost twice my size while he was telling me to say that, "I wished I was black."
- having gold chains ripped from my neck TWICE during the same year.
- having a gun pulled on me 3 times between my 8th and 12th grade
And the list really could go on. The number of fights I got in would be impossible to accurately estimate. I'd guess over 30 between 7th and 12th grade.
So, up to my 11th grade year of high school I was a geek. Because I was an underachiever I was even shunned by the other geeks!
My greatest joy during school was to NEVER do classwork or homework and then pull out A's during tests and finals just to rub the noses of the rest of the class in the fact that I didn't need useless busywork to learn.
Anyway, during the summer of my 11th grade year, I matured out of my dorkiness. I got a job as a lifeguard. My frame filled out to a healthy 180 pounds. I grew another inch.
When I returned to high school for my senior year I was 6' 1" 180 pounds. Tanned. Wavy blond hair and blue eyes. Inside I was still a total geek but you could never tell from the outside.
My previous 11 years of geek misery magically vanished as I started dating cheerleaders, hanging out with the 'cool' kids, doing all the things that seemed so fun in high school. And I HAD A BLAST!
The novelty of the situation was having the mind of a geek and the look of a jock. When I went to college it only got better.
I attended UNC at Chapel Hill. By this time I was 6' 1" 220 pounds solid. Built like a damn racehorse. Yet I still played video games, hung out at arcades, and read sci-fi novels. I was in the unique position of being able to act like a total geek but I was big enough to frighten anyone that would dare to comment negatively. I knew this and used it.
I grew my hair out as well as a goatee. I have blond head hair but black facial hair. Here I stood with this wild blond mop on my head and a 5" long black goatee weighting in by this time, thanks to regular work-outs, at around 235. I looked like a Barbarian. I would also wear construction boots when I went out so my height was close to 6' 3". I used to get all liqoured up with my geek friends and then go terrorize jocks and frat boys.
Unfortunately, that high school angst shit doesn't stop in college. I went to a bar called Tammany Hall with my friend Dennis. He was a resident at the UNC hospital. Brilliant human. He was 26 when this happened, I believe. This 26-year-old to-be dental surgeon (he is now) was simply sitting at the corner of the bar drinking a beer. 3 football players come in. Seniors. 22-years-old at most.
One of the three neanderthals decides that he wants the corner bar seat so he approaches Dennis and starts flicking him in the back of his head while his two dumbass buddies stand there giggling.
Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick.
Dennis is one of the nicest people I know. He's one of the smartest people I know. He's also one of the smallest people I know. He was about 5' 5" 120 pounds and this linebacker was fucking with him.
I happened to come out of the bathroom right when this began. It took me until about the 10th flick to make my way through the crowd and get to this asshole. I grabbed a handful of shirt near his neck and pulled him backward across the dancefloor and yanked him to the ground where I knelt down on his neck and started flicking him in the forehead.
Then the bouncers came and threw us all out but it was still worth it.
I've been both sides of the coin. I've played the role of a geek and the role of a jock. I wound up as a hybrid of the two. I like being athletic and I also like playing video games. I like looking as if I belong in the WWF while I design and implement networks for a living. I look like a warrior and speak like a poet.
And I wouldn't want it any other way.
Talisman
P.S. Here's a link to a picture taken of me during a video game conference in San Diego, in case anyone was curious. I shaved my head for the event. I've actually thought about entering the WWF/WCW under the name Psycho Geek of some other such name. I think geeks the world over would appreciate a wrestler they could identify with;)
While the tragedy in Denver has (yet again) forced America to focus a critical eye on the activities of children, what will the long-term outcome be?
Zip. Zilch. Zero. The nada enchilada.
The rigmarole that always follows these atrocities is useless at best. At worst, it further desensitizes an already cold public.
I do sympathize with the people in Littleton, but do they really give a damn? Should they? They don't know I exist. They shouldn't care how I nor anyone else feels aside from themselves.
Their children are dead. They aren't coming back. But there goes the American public sending flowers and "I'm so sorry your entire life was annihilated" cards. The poor parents of those children will be inundated by worthless condolences in a matter of days.
I assure you they would cheerfully trade every flower bouquet on Earth for just 1 more second with their child. One smile, one laugh, one more breath would justify any barter.
For the public to even halfway entertain the notion that a paper card and wilting vegetation will somehow offset the misery that belongs to those parents is absurd. But it won't stop them. It never does.
The stock reaction to tragedy seems to be the sending of flowers. Remember Diana. They needed a bulldozer and a dump truck to clean up the resulting mess. And did the senders ever bother to think who they were sending the flowers to? Was it Diana?!?
When people commit such acts it is generally to make themselves feel better. There is NO WAY that a handful of flowers will make the victims, direct nor residual, feel better. The only thing that will return those parents/relatives/friends to a normal state-of-mind is the return of their loved one and that isn't going to happen.
But I'll bet my wallet that they feel as if it is.
Every day that passes, the parents wait for the familar clicks of a key turning in the front door lock, knowing it won't happen but feeling as if it should.
Girlfriends wait for their nightly phone calls that will never beckon them again.
Little brothers eagerly wait for their sisters so they can show them their new muscles, new toys, new pet. They will wait for eternity.
Therein lies the tragedy, the people that are left behind. Regardless of your religious beliefs or absence thereof, death isn't so awful. You either go to Heaven, are stuck in limbo, get reincarnated or simply go to sleep forever. We'll leave out the Hell option since, after all, these were kids.
The real Hell is reserved for the living victims. The ones closest to those slain have been permanently altered mentally and emotionally. How many times will a father imagine the final moments of his daughter's life? How many times will he see her on her knees, begging her to-be killer to spare her life only to have the zombie coldly pump lead into her beating heart?
And the mothers. My God, the mothers. Can a mother deal with this? Is it possible? Everytime she undresses and sees the stretch marks on her breast from the son that once suckled her body, the very body that intimately carried him for months, she will remember that he is gone forever. No more hugs in the morning. No more letting him borrow the family car. No more admiring the years of hard work it took to mold him into a young man. That is all over.
The pathos of this tragedy and those like it is that it can never be rectified. It can never be fixed. Out of necessity, the relatives and friends will harden the parts of their soul that need it so they can go on, but they won't heal. That doesn't happen. You scab over, you calous, you don't heal. You can't return to normal after something like this. It isn't an option.
When faced with the consequence of an irreparable situation, the only defense you have is prevention. But instead of making real changes to alter society, here is exactly what America will do:
We will argue. We will blame. We will sue. We will cry. We will send flowers.
But we will DO nothing. The next time it happens, and it WILL happen again, we'll repeat the same steps.
The tragedy is with the living as much as it is the dead.
All I ask is that if this ever happens to me or my family, please, don't send flowers.
Talisman
Katz's math is a bit off, methinks...
on
Why Kids Kill
·
· Score: 1
"Statistically, children are more likely to have an airplane fall out of the sky and kill them than they are to be shot in school..."
Do you mean while riding in said airplane or standing on the ground and having a plane land on top of them?
As for an incident where a child was crushed by an airplane falling on top of him, I have none in recent memory.
If you mean children riding in airplanes, I'll bet the stats still aren't far off.
Where I went to high school (Southridge Senior High - Miami, Florida) we had a student shot on campus each of the three years I was there. Two of them died, one is paralyzed from the neck down. I graduated in 1990.
I wouldn't play down violence in schools. It is real, and those stats are bunk.
Slashdot Mirror
This may be a bit offtopic, but I'm wondering if any of the people that made it into the beta (I didn't) would be willing to UL an ISO of the Corel distro somewhere. I'd love to get my hands on it.
Talisman
MS _will_ make Win64 work with the new CPU. But until that time, it _IS_ pretty funny ;)
Talisman
It's too bad you're an AC because more people would be liable to back you verbally if you have the sac to post your name.
Regardless, I've never really cared much about the speaker. I just listen to what is spoken.
I agree with you. Trying to cram a livelihood down a woman's throat isn't going to make anyone, save Gloria Steinem, happy.
People readily concede physical differences between men and women but when the mind enters the debate, it suddenly becomes a different argument. As if the brain isn't a physical mass...
If people would stop concentrating on this bizarre numerical idea of equality that we have adopted (i.e. there should be a gender/race proportional amount of doctors, lawyers, etc. in a society) and instead foster the inherent strengths of a person we would all be happier.
There was a law suit brought against Sears a few years back by a woman's group that accused them of not hiring women to work in their Lawn and Hardware departments. Sears said they tried, but women simply didn't want to work in those areas. It went to court and Sears won, but the total legal bill was $20,000,000.00 Now everytime I buy a tool from Sears, a few cents goes to that damn lawsuit that proved what was already known.
It's a crazy world...
Talisman
"TKJRTICTEFSDP"
Slashdot is one word, not two. Perhaps you need instruction on how to properly assemble an acronym. Anon smackass.
Talisman
"I wonder what their management must be like...?"
:)
If they let something like that slide, they sound cool to me
Talisman
"Of course the fact that he was beaten in jail..."
He was? I never heard about that. I heard that another hacker that was imprisoned had his jaw broken by another inmate that wanted to use the phone he was on, but not Mitnick.
Got any details on it? A link perhaps?
Talisman
I've seen the inside of an eMachine. Aside from having a very clean layout, the machine sucks from a hardware standpoint.
#1) They use Samsung drives. Any hardware tech has seen far and away more than his fair share of Samsung drives fail. I swear if someone gave me a Samsung drive, I wouldn't accept it. If I did, I'd sell it to my worst enemy.
#2) They use TriGem motherboards. TriGem? No thanks. I'll pass.
#3)WinModems. 'nuff said.
You'd be better off building one yourself.
Talisman
"And I would have to disagree -- DARK eyes and hair."
I was using lightly-colored eyes as a mere variable, not necessarily the desired choice. Personally, I prefer brown eyes even though I have blue.
Talisman
I happen to like the unrealistic standards. It gives humans a goal to shoot for. We are one of the last, perhaps THE last generation that will not benefit from genetic engineering.
Our kids may and certainly their kids will benefit from superior genetic sequencing. In that sequencing can be included:
Big, firm tits
Nice, round, tight asses
Long, muscular legs (incapable of developing arthritis)
Flat stomachs (and the ability to eat anything you want)
High cheek bones, light-colored eyes, any hair color they want
and on and on and on...
Those unrealistic standards aren't too far away from being realistic. Keep 'em high.
Talisman
The people that are rendering these virtual models have become extraordinarily good at making them look real. They are a litle too perfect, but they aren't too far away from something that could fool much of the market.
It would be an interesting sway if the modeling world was overtaken by CGI. Then, perhaps, the exploitation of beautiful women all over the world will halt.
If you can call big money, great drugs, lots of traveling and fabulous parties exploitation...
Talisman
Man is the only animal capable of blushing, and he is the only one that needs to. - Twain
Most (all?) of the cool, easy to remember domain names were taken long ago.
However, what kind of ching would an e-mail address such as god@heaven.org or satan@hell.org fetch?
I'll bet people would pay bucks for it. Granted, most of the cool e-mail addresses are taken as well, but I wonder if people realize their potential value.
I secured evil@hell.org along with a few other unique addresses to find out.
The admins of some of the popular domain sites may have never given thought to the revenue stream something like this could generate. All they would need to do is setup a mail server and sell user accounts at inflated prices.
You'd find people willing to pay $20.00 per month for penguin@linux.com, I'd bet.
Talisman
What happened to that Linux box you were trying to build?
Talisman
Parents should be the ones raising their children. Period.
Not true. There are many unfit parents on the planet.
Most are in the DECENT to GREAT range, however several never should have been allowed to reproduce.
I don't mean the obvious cases (child molesters, abusers, etc.) either. I also mean parents that raise children that have no respect for others.
We, society, have to deal with these psychos when they are full-grown. If the parents aren't going to teach their kids right from wrong, you are out of your mind to think society should stand quietly by and let these kids turn into monsters.
As for the porn issue in and of itself, I'm torn. I saw hundreds of porno mags and tapes while I was growing up due to the fact that my friend's dad owned a XXX book store.
I turned out relatively OK, although I am admittedly a bit of a pervert. My friend, however, is honestly fucked up in the head when it comes to sexual issues.
Was it the porn? Who knows. I don't think it was, but then again, what else would I think?
Talisman
The talentless suits of the world are ensuring their financial survival by monopolizing creativity. It has been this way for eons.
From reports I've read, artists get about $1.00 per CD sold and it costs roughly 17 to print and package a CD. So, subtract $1.17 from the average $17.00 cost of a good CD and where does all that money go? Into the pockets of money-grubbing suits.
These lame asses couldn't play a chord or sing a note if their worthless lives depended on it and they reap the most benefit from the talent of others.
They will be quick to say that if it weren't for their business savvy that the music industry would never have become what it is. To a degree, this is probably true.
ENTER: The Internet
The Internet has obsolesced these monkeys by giving artists a direct outlet for their music. Sites like MP3.COM would fall over themselves trying to help any willing artist bring their songs to market this way, so the technological aspect is covered.
The billing model would be something of a leap of faith. I personally believe if they marketed downloadable songs at say 50 per MP3 file, people would pay it. Since any encryption scheme _WILL_ be cracked eventually and people have been pirating music since dual cassette decks were widely available, there really isn't much of a risk.
Make the price so reasonable that any self-respecting person will pay it. The artists stand to make more this way since they don't have a money grubbing businessman between them and their fans. Metallica doesn't need to know how to encode, upload and distribute MP3s for this to be successful. The boys over at MP3.COM and sites like it will gladly do the work for them and charge a very modest fee compared to the current gouging of the record industry.
The only people that stand to lose out are the talentless businessmen, hence their massive canipcion fit.
Must suck not having any true worth in life, eh RIAA?
Fucking assholes.
Talisman
"Remember, it's easier to catch flies with honey than vinegar."
Yeah, but it's easiest with bullshit.
Tell them that Linux CD's taste like candy and you'll see a sales spike.
Talisman
I've heard Gates' fortune estimated between $90 - $110 billion. Considering that most of the world doesn't yet have computers, I wonder what the odds of Gates being the first ever trillionaire.
Any econ people out there care to comment?
Man is the only capable of blushing, and he is the only one that needs to. - Twain
I've examined many corpses from both sexes and of many races.
Have _NO_ illusions. There _ARE_ physical differences between races and sexes, aside from the obvious ones.
For anyone to think that these differences are of no import is inane.
You're correct in thinking that admitting such a fact will be difficult due to the societal and political ramifications, however should the fact never be widely accepted has no bearing on its accuracy. (e.g. the flat Earth people)
Before I'm labeled a racist or sexist (or both) allow me to expand a bit on my view of the world.
I truly don't care if a person is male or female, of any color or creed. However, when you fully embrace this concept you must understand that you can no longer defend people for the same reasons.
You can't say 'blacks are the same as whites' and then support affirmative action. I have a black friend that absolutely refuses to accept any hand-out/hand-up offered by the government. He went so far as applying to college as a white just so he wouldn't receive preferential treatment. THAT is true character. THAT is an individual.
Our society is renowned for its participants struggle for individuality. However, we don't seem to have a firm grasp on what individualism truly is.
"The only animal capable of blushing is man, and he is the only one that needs to." - Twain
Talisman
Dunno who the artist is, but I e-mailed the company to ask if he'll submit something for /.
The shirt they sell now absolutely ROCKS! I just bought 4 of them.
The URL is:
http://www.sweetgear.com/shirts/shirt.htm
or for the lazy, click here .
Talisman
"Man is the only animal capable of blushing, and he is the only one that needs to." - Twain
Whatever happened to him building his own Linux box? Perhaps he finished it and I missed the follow-up story but last I read he was pretty bad off.
Did he give up trying?
Talisman
"Man is the only animal capable of blushing, and he is the only one that needs to." - Twain
www.sweetgear.com
They ship internationally
you can get any of that at www.sweetgear.com
Talisman
I bought my system from them. Their website is undergoing major changes, but it's mostly functional. Cool people, too.
http://www.sweetgear.com
Talisman
- Man is the only animal that is capable of blushing, and he is the only one that needs to.
I have been both a geek and a popular jock during high school and college.
;)
Up until my senior year in high school I was an unmitigated geek. I didn't know how to fit in. I didn't understand the mentalities of the people around me and I had a very small circle of friends. Small as in me and one other guy.
I was 6' tall but only 130 pounds. I had bad skin and an overall gangly, dorky look. Big joints and thin limbs. All knees and elbows comin' at ya. I was smarter than most of the people in my school (students and faculty) but I was a chronic underachiever. I NEVER took drugs, yet was viewed as a druggy. I was picked on by almost everyone.
I went to school in a rough section of Miami. Some of the lowlights of my Jr. and Sr. high school years were:
- having students spit in my face while lying in a casket during a school Halloween party. I volunteered to be the corpse because no one else wanted to do it. Good call on their behalves.
- being choked on the PE field by a guy almost twice my size while he was telling me to say that, "I wished I was black."
- having gold chains ripped from my neck TWICE during the same year.
- having a gun pulled on me 3 times between my 8th and 12th grade
And the list really could go on. The number of fights I got in would be impossible to accurately estimate. I'd guess over 30 between 7th and 12th grade.
So, up to my 11th grade year of high school I was a geek. Because I was an underachiever I was even shunned by the other geeks!
My greatest joy during school was to NEVER do classwork or homework and then pull out A's during tests and finals just to rub the noses of the rest of the class in the fact that I didn't need useless busywork to learn.
Anyway, during the summer of my 11th grade year, I matured out of my dorkiness. I got a job as a lifeguard. My frame filled out to a healthy 180 pounds. I grew another inch.
When I returned to high school for my senior year I was 6' 1" 180 pounds. Tanned. Wavy blond hair and blue eyes. Inside I was still a total geek but you could never tell from the outside.
My previous 11 years of geek misery magically vanished as I started dating cheerleaders, hanging out with the 'cool' kids, doing all the things that seemed so fun in high school. And I HAD A BLAST!
The novelty of the situation was having the mind of a geek and the look of a jock. When I went to college it only got better.
I attended UNC at Chapel Hill. By this time I was 6' 1" 220 pounds solid. Built like a damn racehorse. Yet I still played video games, hung out at arcades, and read sci-fi novels. I was in the unique position of being able to act like a total geek but I was big enough to frighten anyone that would dare to comment negatively. I knew this and used it.
I grew my hair out as well as a goatee. I have blond head hair but black facial hair. Here I stood with this wild blond mop on my head and a 5" long black goatee weighting in by this time, thanks to regular work-outs, at around 235. I looked like a Barbarian. I would also wear construction boots when I went out so my height was close to 6' 3". I used to get all liqoured up with my geek friends and then go terrorize jocks and frat boys.
Unfortunately, that high school angst shit doesn't stop in college. I went to a bar called Tammany Hall with my friend Dennis. He was a resident at the UNC hospital. Brilliant human. He was 26 when this happened, I believe. This 26-year-old to-be dental surgeon (he is now) was simply sitting at the corner of the bar drinking a beer. 3 football players come in. Seniors. 22-years-old at most.
One of the three neanderthals decides that he wants the corner bar seat so he approaches Dennis and starts flicking him in the back of his head while his two dumbass buddies stand there giggling.
Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick.
Dennis is one of the nicest people I know. He's one of the smartest people I know. He's also one of the smallest people I know. He was about 5' 5" 120 pounds and this linebacker was fucking with him.
I happened to come out of the bathroom right when this began. It took me until about the 10th flick to make my way through the crowd and get to this asshole. I grabbed a handful of shirt near his neck and pulled him backward across the dancefloor and yanked him to the ground where I knelt down on his neck and started flicking him in the forehead.
Then the bouncers came and threw us all out but it was still worth it.
I've been both sides of the coin. I've played the role of a geek and the role of a jock. I wound up as a hybrid of the two. I like being athletic and I also like playing video games. I like looking as if I belong in the WWF while I design and implement networks for a living. I look like a warrior and speak like a poet.
And I wouldn't want it any other way.
Talisman
P.S. Here's a link to a picture taken of me during a video game conference in San Diego, in case anyone was curious. I shaved my head for the event. I've actually thought about entering the WWF/WCW under the name Psycho Geek of some other such name. I think geeks the world over would appreciate a wrestler they could identify with
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DON'T SEND FLOWERS
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While the tragedy in Denver has (yet again) forced America to focus a critical eye on the activities of children, what will the long-term outcome be?
Zip. Zilch. Zero. The nada enchilada.
The rigmarole that always follows these atrocities is useless at best. At worst, it further desensitizes an already cold public.
I do sympathize with the people in Littleton, but do they really give a damn? Should they? They don't know I exist. They shouldn't care how I nor anyone else feels aside from themselves.
Their children are dead. They aren't coming back. But there goes the American public sending flowers and "I'm so sorry your entire life was annihilated" cards. The poor parents of those children will be inundated by worthless condolences in a matter of days.
I assure you they would cheerfully trade every flower bouquet on Earth for just 1 more second with their child. One smile, one laugh, one more breath would justify any barter.
For the public to even halfway entertain the notion that a paper card and wilting vegetation will somehow offset the misery that belongs to those parents is absurd. But it won't stop them. It never does.
The stock reaction to tragedy seems to be the sending of flowers. Remember Diana. They needed a bulldozer and a dump truck to clean up the resulting mess. And did the senders ever bother to think who they were sending the flowers to? Was it Diana?!?
When people commit such acts it is generally to make themselves feel better. There is NO WAY that a handful of flowers will make the victims, direct nor residual, feel better. The only thing that will return those parents/relatives/friends to a normal state-of-mind is the return of their loved one and that isn't going to happen.
But I'll bet my wallet that they feel as if it is.
Every day that passes, the parents wait for the familar clicks of a key turning in the front door lock, knowing it won't happen but feeling as if it should.
Girlfriends wait for their nightly phone calls that will never beckon them again.
Little brothers eagerly wait for their sisters so they can show them their new muscles, new toys, new pet. They will wait for eternity.
Therein lies the tragedy, the people that are left behind. Regardless of your religious beliefs or absence thereof, death isn't so awful. You either go to Heaven, are stuck in limbo, get reincarnated or simply go to sleep forever. We'll leave out the Hell option since, after all, these were kids.
The real Hell is reserved for the living victims. The ones closest to those slain have been permanently altered mentally and emotionally. How many times will a father imagine the final moments of his daughter's life? How many times will he see her on her knees, begging her to-be killer to spare her life only to have the zombie coldly pump lead into her beating heart?
And the mothers. My God, the mothers. Can a mother deal with this? Is it possible? Everytime she undresses and sees the stretch marks on her breast from the son that once suckled her body, the very body that intimately carried him for months, she will remember that he is gone forever. No more hugs in the morning. No more letting him borrow the family car. No more admiring the years of hard work it took to mold him into a young man. That is all over.
The pathos of this tragedy and those like it is that it can never be rectified. It can never be fixed. Out of necessity, the relatives and friends will harden the parts of their soul that need it so they can go on, but they won't heal. That doesn't happen. You scab over, you calous, you don't heal. You can't return to normal after something like this. It isn't an option.
When faced with the consequence of an irreparable situation, the only defense you have is prevention. But instead of making real changes to alter society, here is exactly what America will do:
We will argue.
We will blame.
We will sue.
We will cry.
We will send flowers.
But we will DO nothing. The next time it happens, and it WILL happen again, we'll repeat the same steps.
The tragedy is with the living as much as it is the dead.
All I ask is that if this ever happens to me or my family, please, don't send flowers.
Talisman
"Statistically, children are more likely to have an airplane fall out of the sky and kill them than they are to be shot in school..."
Do you mean while riding in said airplane or standing on the ground and having a plane land on top of them?
As for an incident where a child was crushed by an airplane falling on top of him, I have none in recent memory.
If you mean children riding in airplanes, I'll bet the stats still aren't far off.
Where I went to high school (Southridge Senior High - Miami, Florida) we had a student shot on campus each of the three years I was there. Two of them died, one is paralyzed from the neck down. I graduated in 1990.
I wouldn't play down violence in schools. It is real, and those stats are bunk.
Talisman