“some people postpone living in an

endless

preparation for a life that leaks its fuel

before it

fires from its launching pad”

from the poem “A Message Gone Awry,” by Gerald Locklin, from The Life Force Poems (Water Row Press).

Check out this Wired article on RSS.

I spotted this on a few blogs, including Dan Gillmor’s eJournal.

I’m working on a story. The working title is A Perfect Day. It’s the story of two guys having breakfast. No, it’s the story of one guy having breakfast with his friend Bill. In the drafts and notes I’ve worked on so far, the narrator does not give his name, but I’ll call him Q here.

Q has an idea of who he is, where he is, how his day should start, how his breakfast should be cooked, and what is going to happen during the day, so that it can be perfect. Things start out OK, but things fall apart. He didn’t count on memory being a part of things, or a dark and driving rain.

What I’m thinking about tonight is how to drive the story towards a point that covers the emotional ground between here and there, but still winds up at some reasonably hopeful point in the road.

OK, that last link was kind of a tearjerker, so here’s a couple of penquins.

Thanks, Ron!

A beautiful rainbow bridge collage.

Thanks, Diana!

It’s March 23, and I’ve got this memory. I was a junior in high school, sitting with my girlfriend Carol in my ’67 Mercury at the end of Ash Avenue, by the beach. We decided to go steady. That’s what they called it back then; don’t know what they call it now.

We got matching gold bracelets with the date – March 23, 1978– on them. We wore them until we broke up in 1980. I guess wearing the bracelet for two years is what settled the date so firmly in my memory.

I lost track of Carol several years later. I remember we went to my five year class reunion together. I know she’s been married a couple of times, but I don’t know her last name. Not much there to Google.

I wonder if I still have that bracelet somewhere. It wouldn’t surprise me; there are boxes in the closet that weren’t thoroughly searched when I moved to this condo. But I think I’ll just let the question lie; no need to know.

I could say the same about Carol, though it might sound crass. Truth is, I’d like to know what happened to her. She’s a nice person, and it would be good to know she’s alright. The world can be a though place to live sometimes, don’t you think?

The Hiibel Case:

“‘We’re all concerned about national ID cards and all that kind of stuff”

— Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens

So, being unemployed I surfed by a Web site called IT Unemployed and found a poll on employment status. Look at these stats on persons who responded:

Working, and all is well [ 7.9% (13) ]

Working but had to take a pay/benefits/hours cut [ 5.4% (9) ]

Working but expecting to be unemployed soon [ 8.5% (14) ]

Unemployed six months or less [ 15.2% (25) ]

Unemployed more than six months but less than one year [ 19.5% (32) ]

Unemployed more than one year [ 43.2% (71) ]

Holy harddrive, Battman. I may not be alone out here. More on this topic later. (I’m not IT, just T – technical writer)

I don’t want to sleep.

I want to lay down bricks

and stones beginning

here under the table

down across the yard

into the sea.

I don’t want to sleep.

I want to drink coffee

write things down

hang them on the empty

fridge. I have some post-it

notes for the mirror too.

I don’t want to sleep.

I should go stand on the corner

where the tourists wait

for the light to change

and tell them that people

are in need of help

that animals

are dying from our lives.

Kyle Kimberlin

3/22/04

I just spotted this on Buzzstuff and had to share it. W is good and evil, tastes great and less filling, chocolate and peanut butter. He has a wheaty side and a frosted side. Or something like that. Anyway, Buzz has had enough of the pushme-pullyou for now. Thank you very much.

Oops. Seems some of president Bush’s campaign attire was made in a sweatshop in Myanmar. Bush has banned imports from that country. You can read all about it in the Paper of Record:

Logo Shirts for Bush Campaign Eluded Myanmar Embargo

I’ve been thinking about writing something on the anniversary of the attack on Iraq. But Riverbend in Baghdad has done it so well that I’ll defer to her.

Please follow the link and read what she wrote, OK? I believe it’s important.