In ancient days, on the computer networks of the Sumerians and
Hittites, people kept
.plan files as a way to disseminate
useful and/or amusing information. Since this practice has gone the
way of cuneiform, I have preserved my old files for posterity below:
It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion
By the beans of java, my thoughts acquire speed
The hands acquire the shakes, the shakes become a warning
It is by caffeine alone that I set my mind in motion
There it is again. Some clueless FOOL talking about the "Information
Superhighway." They don't know JACK about the net. It's NOTHING like a
Superhighway. That's a BAD metaphor.
Yeah, but suppose the metaphor ran in the OTHER direction. Suppose the
HIGHWAYS were like the NET. All right! Severe craziness. A highway HUNDREDS
of lanes wide. Most with potholes. Privately operated bridges and overpasses.
No highway patrol. A couple of rent-a-cops on bicycles with broken whistles.
500 member VIGILANTE POSSES with nuclear weapons. 237 ON RAMPS at every
intersection. NO SIGNS. Wanna get to Ensenada? Holler out the window at a
passing truck to ask directions. AD HOC traffic laws. Some lanes would VOTE to
make use by a single-occupant-vehicle a CAPITAL OFFENSE on Monday through
Friday between 7:00 and 9:00. Other lanes would just SHOOT you without a trial
for talking on a car phone.
AOL would be a giant diesel-smoking BUS with hundreds of EBOLA victims and a
TOILET spewing out on the road behind it. Throwing DEAD WOMBATS and rotten
cabbage at the other cars most of which have been ASSEMBLED AT HOME from kits.
Some are 2.5 horsepower LAWNMOWER ENGINES with a top speed of nine miles an
hour. Others burn NITROGLYCERINE and IDLE at 120.
No license tags. World War II BOMBER NOSE ART instead. Terrifying paintings
of huge teeth or VAMPIRE EAGLES. Bumper mounted MACHINE GUNS. Flip somebody
the finger on this highway and get a WHITE PHOSPHORUS GRENADE up your tailpipe.
Flatbed trucks with ANTI-AIRCRAFT MISSILE BATTERIES to shoot down the KRUD
Traffic Watch helicopter. A little kid on a tricycle with a squirtgun filled
with HYDROCHLORIC ACID.
NO OFFRAMPS.
Now THAT'S the way to run an Interstate Highway system.
The following block of characters is an ASCII "Magic Eye"
Random-Dot Stereogram. Stare at it with your eyes focused at
infinity and you will eventually see a diamond suspended
between two rows of columns.
O O O O
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bB:8nfa]BJ6)zQ>ybB:8nfa]BJ6)zQ>ybB:8nfa]BJ6)zQ>ybB:8nfa]BJ6)zQ>ybB:8nfa]BJ6)zQ>
(created by helder@ci.ua.pt)
The Phonetic Alphabet
---------------------
A - Alpha G - Golf N - November U - Uniform
B - Bravo H - Hotel O - Oscar V - Victor
C - Charlie I - India P - Papa W - Whiskey
D - Delta J - Julia Q - Quebec X - X-Ray
E - Echo K - Kilo R - Romeo Y - Yankee
F - Foxtrot L - Lima S - Sierra Z - Zulu
M - Mike T - Tango
Coaster Trip, Summer 96, Hit 22 coasters in seven days:
Big Dipper -- Geauga Lake (Ohio)
Blue Streak -- Cedar Point (Ohio)
Cedar Creek Mine Train -- Cedar Point (Ohio)
Comet -- Hersheypark (Pa)
Corkscrew -- Cedar Point (Ohio)
Disaster Transport -- Cedar Point (Ohio)
Double Loop -- Geauga Lake (Ohio)
Gemini -- Cedar Point (Ohio)
Iron Dragon -- Cedar Point (Ohio)
Magnum XL-200 -- Cedar Point (Ohio)
Mantis -- Cedar Point (Ohio)
Mean Streak -- Cedar Point (Ohio)
Mind Eraser -- Geauga Lake (Ohio)
Mine Train -- Hersheypark (Pa)
Predator -- Darien Lake
Raging Wolf Bobs -- Geauga Lake (Ohio)
Raptor -- Cedar Point (Ohio)
Sidewinder -- Hersheypark (Pa)
Superdooperlooper -- Hersheypark (Pa)
Viper -- Darien Lake
Wildcat -- Cedar Point (Ohio)
Wildcat -- Hersheypark (Pa)
Plus, earlier this season, we've hit 8 others:
Batman, The Ride -- Six Flags Great Adv. (NJ)
Comet -- from Crystal Beach, now at Great Escape
Great American Scream Machine -- Six Flags Great Adv. (NJ)
Riverside Cyclone -- Riverside Park (MA)
Rolling Thunder -- Six Flags Great Adv. (NJ)
Runaway Mine Train -- Six Flags Great Adv. (NJ)
Steamin' Demon -- Great Escape
Thunderbolt -- Riverside Park (MA)
Not bad numbers for before the summer solstice!
Who controls the British crown?
Who keeps the metric system down?
We do! We do.
Who leaves the Atlantis off the maps?
Who keeps the Martians under wraps?
We do! We do.
Who holds back the electric car?
Who makes Steve Guttenberg a star?
We do! We do.
Who robs cave fish of their sight?
Who rigs every Oscar night?
We do! We do.
-- The Stonecutters' call to order, "Homer the Great"
"The factory of the future will have two employees: a man and a dog.
The man will be there to feed the dog. The dog will be there to keep
the man from touching the equipment." Report on Business, 10/03/1996
AREA MAN ENCOURAGED TO GIVE UP THE FUNK
DETROIT--Area lawyer Gene Belmont was encouraged to give up the funk
Saturday night at a downtown Detroit dance club. Entertaining clients
from out of town, Belmont brought the guests to TJ's House of Funk,
and proceeded to dance and socialize. At the evening's high point,
with many patrons dancing ecstatically, bandleader Jesse Gardner asked
Belmont enthusiastically to relinquish control of the funk. "Give it
up, baby, give it up baby," Gardner said. "You gots to give up the
funk." He later added, "Unnhhh." Though as of press time it was not
known whether Belmont released the funk, sources close to the lawyer
say he was more than prepared to give it up.
"Digerati -- n.pl., People highly skilled in the processing and manipulation
of digital information; wealthy or scholarly techno-nerds."
New York Times Magazine, 3-1-1992, pg 12
"You just can't beat the stopping power of an exploding bowling ball."
HOW TO PASS TIME IN THE ELEVATOR:
- Greet everyone getting on the elevator with a warm handshake
and ask them to call you Admiral.
- Grimace painfully while smacking your forehead and muttering:
"Shut up, dammit, all of you just shut UP!"
- Whistle the first ten notes of "It's a Small World" incessantly.
- Crack open your briefcase and while peering inside ask: "Got
enough air in there?"
- When arriving at your floor, grunt and strain to yank the doors
open, then act embarrassed when they open by themselves.
- Do Tai Chi exercises.
- Stare, grinning, at another passenger for a while, and then
announce: "I've got new socks on!"
- Meow occassionally.
- Walk on with a cooler that says "human head" on the side.
- Stare at another passenger for a while, then announce "You're
one of THEM!" and move to the far corner of the elevator.
- Wear a puppet on your hand and talk to other passengers
"through" it.
- Take a bite of a sandwich and ask another passenger: "Wanna
see wha in muh mouf?"
- Announce in a demonic voice: "I must find a more suitable host
body."
- Stare at your thumb and say "I think it's getting larger."
- If anyone brushes against you, recoil and holler "Bad touch!"
Overheard in CII 7111 during those lazy, hazy summer evenings when
Mark, Margarita and I would be studying for prelims ...
"CoffeeP?"
"We're dead."
"... and then if you substitute A --> Ba into
the existing grammar, you will see that
YOU'RE SCREWED!!"
"... that any bright high school student should
be able to master."
"Yea ... like Einstein at 15."
"... think I can make the roof of the playhouse?"
"Well, it's like a dogfight, but they're in four F-18's
and you're in a Cessna with a BB gun ..."
Reality is something I hate and fear.
I avoid it at all costs.
- Iggy Pop
"All men are capable of reason. That is the fundamental principle
of democracy. Because everyones mind is capable of true knowledge
you don't have to have a special authority, or a special revelation
telling you that this is the way things should be."
- Joseph Campbell
"Sit back! RELAX! Allow yourself to believe ... Conformity is SEXY
and productivity rules. Decision-making can be so taxing; why not
let us express your feelings? Everything has been designed for your
COMFORT and CONVENIENCE."
Cop Shoot Cop -- "Discount Rebellion"
Industry Fact: When Elvis Presley died in 1977 there were
37 Elvis impersonators in the world.
Today there are 48,000.
If the current trend continues, by the year 2010, one
out of every three people in the world will be an
Elvis impersonator.
Audio Village ad
Oct 1993 _MIX_ magazine
Imitation Hemingway Contest Winner
By John Browne published under the Creative Commons license.
The Bug Count Also Rises
In the fall of that year the rains fell as usual and washed the leaves of
the dust and dripped from the leaves onto the ground. The shuttles drove
through the rainy streets and took the people to meetings, then later
brought them back, their tires spraying the mist into the air. Many days
he stood for a long time and watched the rain and the shuttles and drank
his double-tall mochas. With the mochas he was strong.
Hernando who worked down the hall and who was large with microbrews came to
him and told him that the ship day was upon them but the bugs were not yet
out. The bugs which were always there even when you were in Cafes late at
night sipping a Redhook or a double-tall mocha and you thought you were safe
but they were there and although Enrico kept the floor swept clean and the
mochas were hot the bugs were there and they ate at you.
When Hernando told him this he asked how many bugs.
"The RAID is huge with bugs," Hernando said. "The bugs are infinite."
"Why do you ask me? You know I cannot do this thing anymore with the bugs."
"Once you were great with the bugs," Hernando said. "No one was greater,"
he said again. "Even Prado."
"Prado? What of Prado? Let Prado fix the bugs."
Hernando shrugged. "Prado is finished. He was gored by three Sev2's on
Chicago. All he does now is drink herb tea and play with his screensavers."
"Herb tea?"
"It is true, my friend." Hernando shrugged again.
Later he went to his office and sat in the dark for a long time. Then he
sent e-mail to Michaels.
Michaels came to him while he was sipping a mocha. They sat silently for
awhile, then he asked Michaels, "I need you to triage for me."
Michaels looked down. "I don't do that anymore," he said.
"This is different. The bugs are enormous. There are an infinity of bugs."
"I'm finished with that," Michaels said again. "I just want to live quietly."
"Have you heard Prado is finished? He was badly gored. Now he can only
drink herb tea."
"Herb tea?" Michaels said.
"It is true," he said sorrowfully.
Michaels stood up. "Then I will do it, my friend," he said formally. "I
will do it for Prado, who was once great with the bugs. I will do it for
the time we filled Prado's office with bouncy balls, and for the time Prado
wore his nerf weapons in the marketing hall and slew all of them with no
fear and only a great joy at the combat. I will do it for all the pizza we
ate and the bottles of Coke we drank."
Together they walked slowly back, knowing it would be good. As they walked
the rain dripped softly from the leaves, and the shuttles carried the bodies
back from the meetings.