Well, last night we went and watched The Planet of the Apes.  My advice to anyone who hasn't seen this movie and wants to see it, either wait for the video to come out or leave the theater when the main character (I don't even know any of the characters' names . . . I didn't even know their names last night) finally leaves the planet.  It's really bad when you go into movie expecting to be disappointed by the ending to find you can be disappointed even more than you anticipated!  The ending was atrocious!  Horrendous!  Appalling!  It was something I wouldn't force my worst enemy to see!  IT WAS AWFUL!  The show had a perfect ending right up until it ended!

While I'm at it, let me poke some holes in the plot.  If you haven't seen the movie, you may want to skip this paragraph.  I saw gorillas, orangutans, and chimpanzees on the planet.  On the station/ship I think I might have seen orangutans and the obvious chimpanzees but I did not see even one gorilla.  One could argue of course that the gorillas were simply off stage at that point.  Also, how hard is it to grasp history?  It's obvious that there is no way that Capt. What's-his-name ever makes it home, simply because the history of the planet of the apes shows that he didn't.  If he had made it home, he would have crash landed on a deserted planet and not a planet populated by apes.  The final gaping chasm in the plot is why on earth would Earth now be populated with Apes?  Nothing in the plot had anything to do with Earth!  Other things that bothered me about the movie: the two lines taken from the original planet of the apes seemed trite.  The "Get your damn hands off of me" line at least fit with the scene.  The "Damn them, the damn them all to Hell" line, however, was really out of place.  It was actually comical that Charlton Heston's character said this because it was so contrived.  At least in the first film it fit the scene, in the second it's just a laughable piece of trivia (although it was even funnier that 90% of the audience didn't catch that line).

Well, my daughter's birthday is on Monday and we are taking her to the zoo today.  Kind of ironic, isn't it?  Planet of the Apes last night, the zoo this morning, very entertaining.

Well, it was another arduous trip to the zoo today.  For some reason we keep forgetting that the Teamsters Local 222 has a huge Bar-B-Que at the zoo on the Saturday of Labor Day Weekend each year.  I'm sure that individually they're all very nice people but en masse they're enough to make a sane person willing and able to gleefully throw one or two into the nearest lion/tiger/bear/hippo/other large animal pen.  For the third year running we have vowed to never go to the zoo on Labor Day Saturday again.  Unfortunately, we'll probably forget again next year until after it's too late.

There is one drawback to being on the cutting edge, sometimes you are cut.  I've been working with a pre-release of Blog 5 and decided it was time to bring my wife's copy (we have a copy on both our machines so we can each be making an entry at the same time) up to date with the release I have.  It was then that I realized that she was still running one of the intermediate 4.1 versions and I no longer had the appropriate convert program.  I ended up running over to Elevate Software, makers of DBISAM (the database used by Blog) and nabbing their utility pack.  I quickly restructured the tables to specifications of Blog 5 and viola! she's running 5 like a charm.

I've been looking for a database to use in place of BDE/Paradox in two of my apps at work.  DBISAM looks like it will fill the ticket nicely, I'll just have to review the docs a bit more closely to find out how easy it will be to make the transition.  The price, $249 I believe it was, won't be too hard to sell at work.  My other goal would then be, of course, to get a copy here at the house.  If/when I can do that I'll have to update and re-release VirtualReality Time, and get to work on the little projects that my wife wants me to whip up for her.  It's much easier to convince people to download a 2MB distribution than a 13MB one.

Well, I'm missing "Red Dwarf" so I had better sign off!

ARGHHH! I just found another copy of SirCam sitting on the email server at work just waiting to nab some poor fool.  I'd like to strangle the individual responsible for this thing!

I've just realized how spoiled I've become, the thought of typing this into my computer instead of speaking it is making my fingers cringe!  Well, if you read "What Do I Know?" (see link under Watering Holes), then you've probably read about the meltdown.  It was not a pretty thing.  In our 8+ years of marriage, we had never had a shouting match.  I won't go into the gory details other than to say it was a terrible shock when I woke up at 4:00 AM and soon realized that my wife and the car were both missing.  I imagined everything from headlines reading "Local woman proves that the Dodge Neon cannot in reality fly." to simply never seeing her again.

Please indulge me while I brag on my relationship with my wife for a moment though.  Yesterday we went from lovey-dovey to the point where others we've known have called in the lawyers and forward (not back) to even stronger bonds of love all within the space 24 hours.  Today we've strengthened our commitments to each other and placed more safety values to try and prevent the pressure from reaching quite so high again.

On a lighter note, the Vintage Whine page should be up tomorrow.

Looks like this is going to be a very short entry.  It has been a very long day for me, I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and decided to skip going on the early bus and dozed until 5:00 a.m.; to make a long store short, I've been awake forever today and I am just exhausted.

I haven't had a chance to see what my wife wrote about the parents' meeting tonight but I am sure that if she did write anything that it probably wasn't very kind.  She has good reason for that.  We were crammed into an extremely hot auditorium, where we were forced to listen to an extremely dry and fairly uninformative prepared presentation.  A prepared presentation which the very teachers who are supposed to be using this new program are supposedly unqualified to present.  As if they couldn't read or even just send home with the students the information that was presented.  Don't get me wrong, my father is a high school teacher, my mother is a financial secretary at a junior high and former elementary school librarian, my sister-in-law is a high school teacher and my mother-in-law is a teacher's aide at a school for the handicapped; so, needless to say I love teachers. I do not, however, have much respect for the intelligence of the district level administration.  Oh, they're highly educated people but the only way you would know that is to look at the papers on the walls of their offices.  I'll give you one guess as to which group is supposedly qualified to give the poor presentation, a presentation so insulting that we left after 30 minutes.

I had my weekly dose of DMCA madness today.  Now don't get me wrong, I believe in strong copyright law.  I mean the basic principle behind copyright law is so the author of a work can put food on his table.  On the other hand, I am also for "fair use."  The basic principle behind fair use being: I have paid for a copy of the author's work, I own that copy, and I am free to use that copy as I see fit as long as I don't infringe upon the author's ability to put food on his table by making and selling more copies.  In short, I don't have the right to copy the entire work and distribute it.  With the DMCA, the rights of the author remain intact but my rights are severely limited.  The DMCA moves me from a copy owner to a copy renter/subscriber and the only right I retain is that of reading/hearing/watching my rented copy of the work.  I may not quote from it, print from it, make a backup of it, or move it to a different machine.  None of these things.  If you don't believe it, by a five dollar eBook and try doing any of the above but be forewarned, the above actions are illegal and the software will prevent you from doing so.  Until the DMCA the above limits were illegal but now fair use is illegal.  See this post for more on my view of the DMCA should you be so inclined.

Well my hopes for designing Vintage Whine today were undermined by a pasta bar.  A sensuous pasta bar, a glorious pasta bar; oh, it was sooo good.  Well, it's almost 10:00 p.m. and that alarm is merciless so I had better wrap this up.

Just want to quickly thank my wife for linking to the Whinery, the number of referrals from her site are quickly out pacing all others.  That means you others need to pick up the pace ;o-)

Six or seven months ago I read an article that was trying to find a way to accomplish what the failed CDA tried to do.  The CDA (Common Decency Act) attempted to sanitize the Internet and would have done so in a very unconstitutional manner.  I guess the article that I read wasn't actually trying to duplicate the work of the CDA but was trying to make it easier for parents, teachers, librarians, and others in similar positions to objectively limit what type of web sites could be browsed at home, in school or at the public library.  The proposal put forth was to introduce the .adu domain which stands for Adult.  Adult material would then be required to simply use the .adu domain and everyone could go merrily about their way.  Of course it didn't catch on and people were sure that it would cause more problems than it's worth.  Two days ago, I read an article requesting a .sex domain.  Obviously, this domain request is even more specific than the .adu request.  It would make it much easier for those looking for sexually oriented entertainment to actually find it and at the same time make it much easier for parents, teachers, and so forth to limit access to these same types of sites.  I think that the best part about this new call (it's not actually a new call, he just wants .sex reconsidered) for a .sex domain is that it does not come from a politician, a political action group nor from any group of adults.  The article that I read was written by a 16 year old programmer from Australia and he makes a lot of sense.  Read the article yourself and tell me what you think.

Adult Entertainment.  Adult Humor.  Adult Content.  Why is it that whenever Adult appears in conjunction with any other word it means sex?  It makes no sense to me and let me give you an example of why.  I regularly watch Saturday morning cartoons with my children, I also regularly watch Saturday morning cartoons without my children.  Why do I do this?  Because I enjoy the adult humor in Saturday morning cartoons.  Now let me explain.  I have noticed that most of the humor in Saturday morning cartoons goes way over the heads of the supposed target audience.  That humor is intended for adults, for those with a more refined sense of humor.  It's adult humor, not sexually oriented humor, but humor that only an adult is really able to appreciate.  But heaven help me if I ever tried to explain that "Recess" or "The Weekenders" are full of adult humor!  I can already see the lynch mob forming.  Why don't we simply call it Sexual Entertainment, Sexual Humor or Sexual Content?  What do you think?

We're jumping all over the map today.  Yesterday I said "put food on his table" and someone asked if I really meant his/her table.  No, I meant "his table."  I believe in speaking English not in speaking politically correct English.  I also believe that anyone who attempts to be politically correct is foolish.  After all, who wants to be a politician?  I think that that is enough on this subject.

My wife and I went to back to school night tonight.  As we walked through the playground we passed one of our neighbors.  When we passed, she said "It's finally my turn."  This statement almost brought me to tears.  This woman and her husband are unable to have children.  They've wanted kids for years and are probably in their late 30s or early 40s.  Two years ago, I think it was two years, they were able to go to the Marshall Islands and adopt two children.  They are now the happy parents of a five year old boy and a two year old girl.  As my wife put it, "I can't imagine what it must have been like to have wanted to come down to back to school night year after year and never had a reason to come down."

Well, instead of posting I've been working on the site tonight.  I've finally added Vintage Whine (can you believe it Fahim? I can finally continue the duck series!), Vintage Whine will keep a record of all the Daily Whine Samplers.  Sort of a record of all the profound things that fall out of that squishy part between my ears.;o-)

I have also added Whine on their Menu.  This section is devoted to those who have linked to The Whinery.  You know the type, they are the ones who seem to think that a little whine goes well with dinner or that it works well as a nightcap before bedtime. ;o-)

There is one other new section, Random Thoughts.  Blog has a new feature, cookies.  Now these aren't your average browser cookies, these are fortune cookies... sort of.  It will basically be a place where random thoughts, quotes, chickens or whatever else I can find will magically (automagically that is) appear.  Usually it will just be something to strike you as being strange or slightly funny.

I have been reliving my childhood a bit lately.  This usually involves either mild melancholy or a library card, happily it involves a library card this time round.  I have been re-reading the Martian Tales of Edgar Rice Burroughs.  The texts of the first five books in the series are available for free from Project Gutenberg (see the link at the bottom of this page).  I just love the way that John Carter becomes a chieftain among the Tharks, how he befriends Tars Tarkas and above all the incomparable Dejah Thoris of Helium.  I'm now at a loss as to whether I should continue reading the Martian Tales or whether I should start Titus Groan of the Gormenghast novels.  Gormenghast deserves an entry all its own and since its already 11:00 p.m. I had better save it for later.

A final note for the evening.  When Microsoft first came out with IE, I knew that the day would come when I would need to have both Netscape and IE because some pages would render in Netscape and not IE and vice versa.  When I expressed this fear of mine, the few that actually noticed what I had said informed me that I was nuts because the W3C standards would protect us.  Well this is one of those times when I wish I were nuts because we're almost there.  This site is a case in point.  It is XHTML 1.0 transitional and CSS2 compliant, you can verify this yourself with the links at the bottom of this page.  In Netscape version 4 and lower this page shows up as black and white with the standard blue links.  In version 6 the colors are all there and the boxes are the right shape and size but the graphics at the bottom of the page wander all over like lost sheep.  Opera comes close, but those graphics still like to wander.  IE is the only browser that renders the CSS file like I have written it.  But even IE doesn't support CSS2 fully.  Well I had better go as I'm about to lapse into full rant mode which is not a pretty thing.

What a busy weekend!  I barely had time to think let alone actually make an entry both Saturday and Sunday started between 6:00 and 7:00 a.m. and didn't wrap up until nearly 10:00 p.m.  I'm still feeling fairly hammered from it all.  I haven't even have the presence of mind to take any notes for today's entry, so I will just use one of the thoughts/notes I had over the weekend.

The new thinking in parenting right now is "Be Their Friend" and "Don't be pushy" or "Teach them what they should do and let them figured it out on their own."  The result of this thinking is a herd of spoiled, disrespectful and ill-mannered children.  Growing up, I was always amazed when people would comment on how well behaved my brothers and I were.  Of course we were well behaved!  If we misbehaved in public, we basically had guaranteed that Dad would tan our hides when we got home.  Although not quite as strict, I take the same approach with my own children and marvel of marvels! they are well behaved... well, usually.  I do not tolerate disrespect from my children; especially, if it is directed toward my wife.  Some people cannot believe that I require this level of social interaction from my two-year-old boy.  Now, I don't expect as much from him as I do from his older brother and sister but I do expect him to obey most of the rules most of the time.  A good example was that he did not want to go to church with the family yesterday.  I gave him a very simple choice, go to church with the family or I would take him home and he would stay in bed until the family comes home.  Just like his brother before him, he thought this was a grand idea and I took him home and put him bed.  About 20 minutes later we walked into the church because he realized that being together with the family (even in some boring church meeting) and behaving while he's there is much better than staying in his bedroom with absolutely nothing to do.  I have a funny feeling that we won't have to make that trip again.  For hundreds of years society has never had to deal with an upcoming generation with so many of them being out of control (just look at the violence, the sex, the drugs, and the criminal activities and show me were any of that exhibits self-control).  Then again society has never had parents whose one aspiration is to be their kids' friends instead of being authority figures.  I don't want my children to see me as their friend, they have plenty of friends, I want them to see me as their father.  Their father, the one man on Earth who loves them more than any other man, who will do anything I can to help them and who will always expect them to do their very best.  I want them to see their mother in the same light.  My wife and I are the only two people on Earth who are qualified to fill these roles for our children but there's a whole world full of people who can be their friend.  I realize that, especially by today's popular thinking, what I have said seems fairly harsh.  I believe it was Lord Byron who said, "It is the path of least resistance which makes both rivers and men crooked."

Before anyone gets hot under the collar, let me just say that the above is my philosophy and the way I raise my children.  How does this relate to you? To you, the above is only my opinion and one with which you are free to agree or to disagree.

May God give us comfort and wreak His vengeance upon those fiends who have done this.

"Freedom itself was attacked this morning by a faceless coward and Freedom will be defended." ------President George W. Bush

Share love with those around you.

Like you I am still stunned by what happened yesterday.  My mind is still reeling, unable to really wrapped itself around this grim reality.  Last night and about 6:20 p.m. we placed flags along our front walk and in our front window.  We left the light burning through the night to light up these standards of freedom.  This morning our local Boy Scout troop planted flags in front yards throughout the neighborhood.  Last night my wife and I listened to Gordon B. Hinckley, prophet of the Lord and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, as he offered comfort to all those who grieve and those of us who mourn with them.  We listened as the Tabernacle Choir sang hymns of solace and American anthems.  More than anything we had done, seen, or heard these things have brought us some measure of peace.

I fear that it will take us years to really recover from what has happened, what has happened to all of us.  The fear in the hearts of many, the greed (you have heard about the gasoline price gouging in the Midwest, haven't you?), the hatred (we are at war with terrorism not Islam) and above all the heart wrenching anguish we feel.  Indulge me as I quickly say something about each of these themes.

Fear.  I know that it's difficult to not fear, to not be terrified in some degree by what impact this will have upon our future.  But to combat fear, I think of the words of Mormon to his son, Moroni, "I fear not what man can do; for perfect love casteth out all fear." (Moro. 8:16)  This morning, as I drove to work, I thought to myself as each car passed, "I am thankful that you are alive today."  Traffic was a little bit heavy, but this is the most enjoyable commute that I can remember.

Greed.  Those among us that would try to turn this tragedy to a profit are evil.  They only rank above those who committed these acts of horror by a hair's breadth.

Hatred.  Those who acted violently against our fellow citizens here out of hatred are just as cowardly as those who acted yesterday.

Anguish.  The only hope we have of overcoming our anguish is to share our love with each other.

Great commentary from a survivor of yesterday's turmoil.

A very accurate expression of the emotions and resolve of the nation.

Some are calling for the United States to not seek retribution for the actions taken Tuesday.  I am ashamed that anyone would believe that doing nothing is the right thing to do.  I realize that those words alone may cost me some readers but I will not pull any punches on any subject and least of all this one.

If our Founding Fathers had hoped for peace instead of taking action, the United States would never have been born.  If President Lincoln had hoped for peace instead of taking action, the Union would have perished and slavery might be alive and well today.  If President Truman had hoped for peace instead of taking action, there would have been no stopping the Axis Powers.  Is there any doubt that the acts Tuesday are somehow less egregious or threatening to our nation than these other points in history?  No I say and because this was a cowardly attack upon thousands of innocent civilians the atrocities of Tuesday may well be worse.  We must not cower in the dark and pray that the evils in the world will go away on their own.  We must actively and aggressively root out the hidden corners where they lie and see that they pay dearly for their heinous actions.

Below is the text of a comment made in connection with the In Memory graphic.

[Sep 13, 21:34] Ben: I was shocked at this act of evil and shocked of how it is being handled.I am not defending this worthless act of some kind of sick symbolism but our gov't isnt exactly perfect or maybe i should say evil.Look at the war on drugs,Peru,Chile,iraq,iran it seems to me that we just dont like brown people with the bombings that we handle assinations the murders done in the name of justice.i dont see any justice in it i see evil.Ive been on message boards and even my teachers are basically saying "lets go kill some f***** sand n*****s" People feel that way and its sick.there is no justice in it only revenge only hate and fear.h*** we dont even know who DID IT. but we sure as h*** are ready to bomb them,to kill their women and children. we dont see anything wrong with maybe we are even praising the idea i find it sick and i hope we dont.[asterisks and notation added by Tyran]

I had planned to launch into a major diatribe over this, but have since remembered that being blunt and honest is better for us all.  I removed the above comment from the Memorial comments because it does not fit in with the theme of a memorial.  It is, however, very appropriate in relation to other entries I've made and so it stays on the site.  You will note that I have "bleeped" the explicatives.  I do not accept uncivilized language and will not store it on my site.  Every visitor here is just that, a visitor, a guest.  Abusive language is just that, abusive and my duty as host here means that I will not allow my guests nor myself to be abused.

I just want to quickly address the major themes that Ben mentions.  If our government is truly evil, we can only blame those who put that government in place and that would be us.  I, however, do not believe that our government is evil.  I believe that it is the best government on Earth.  Even a perfect governmental system is going to have major problems if it is managed by imperfect people.  I don't think anyone questions whether politicians, or any of us for that matter, are perfect.

Blind emotion will always lead people to say and do rash things.  Blind emotion says "Kill them all."  Blind emotion says "Any form of retribution is evil."  It is only when our emotions are under control that we can really see the picture before us.  Thousands are missing and presumed dead.  My wife is startled by the slightest sound, my daughter cries in frustration because she doesn't understand the emotions that are raging around her but she feels them even though she doesn't know why.  My mother stands resolute knowing that my father, though retired, is on the list to be activated and indeed has already been requested should the call come.  Someone has killed thousands of our brothers and sisters.  Someone has robbed us of our sense of safety.  Someone has robbed us of our peace.  Should we allow this to go unanswered?

Two more possible hi-jack attempts were made today.  Even as we spend time to pinpoint who is truly behind these actions, we are still under attack:

Taken from ABCNEWS.com on the main page tonight.  I'll try to keep the link up to date on this story.

© 2001 ABCNEWS

Sept. 13 - Authorities took 10 people into custody from New York City's two major airports after finding they had false identifications and knives, law enforcement officials told ABCNEWS.com.

Officials fear the two groups of people may have been set to mount a second wave of terror following Tuesday's attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.  The New York area's three major airports were shut down.

Between 4:15 and 5 p.m. ET, four men were detained trying to board a United Airlines flight to Los Angeles at John F. Kennedy International Airport, officials said.  They had open tickets to various places in the United States, dated Sept. 11, the date of Tuesday's attack.

Officials also said they had multiple fake IDs, knives, and flight certificates from Flight Safety International in Vero Beach, Fla., one of the schools the suspected terrorists were allegedly trained.

Following the detention of the four men, a female was also detained for allegedly acting in a support role.

Hours later, at LaGuardia Airport, police detained five men who also had open flight tickets, knives, fake pilot licenses and identification.  All 10 people are being questioned by authorities tonight.

If we stand idly by, these attacks will continue and we will become a nation that will always live in fear.  We must not allow emotion to blind us.  Ideally we could simply hope for peace and those attacking us would be rational enough for us all to enjoy peace.  We do not live in an ideal let alone a rational world.  Those attacking us want nothing more than our destruction, than our misery and our pain.  We must defend ourselves, we must stop those who are attacking us even if it means their destruction; otherwise we will be destroyed in misery and pain.

It is time.  It is time to heal.  It is time to piece lives back together.  Yesterday, we prayed and the world prayed with us.  When has there ever been such an outpouring of faith?  Such an outpouring of goodwill?

Yesterday's time of prayer, mourning and reflection has been a balm to my soul, it has soothed my mind and brought me great peace.  I still cry when I see images of New York and Washington but these images no longer haunt my soul.  Yesterday I was able to actually laugh, to really enjoy myself for the first time since Tuesday.  Yesterday I spent most of the day in a training seminar, which I must say exceeded expectations, and was very late coming home.  As I drove out of the Salt Lake Valley last night, I saw airliners overhead waiting to land at Salt Lake International.  My mind filled with scenes of reunion as loved ones, across the world, finally begin returning home.

I have recognized a profound change within me.  I do not normally connect to other people very well.  Other people seem to strike a connection to me quite quickly but I normally do not reciprocate very quickly, if at all.  Now I find myself being concerned about the well-being of complete strangers: the cashier at Maverick, the truck driver who tried to run me over, people I saw on golf courses and just about everyone else I saw.  I have never been like that, it's astounding.  I am ashamed that it took such a high price to make this change in me and so I am resolute that this change will be a lasting one and that I will make a difference.

While it pains me to even broach the topic, we are at war with a souless evil and we must each stand vigilant in exposing and resisting it.  There are still people who believe that violence and terror are the best means to gain support for their causes.  Even worse, some of them are our neighbors.  When I see a site whose logo (named ldsriot) shows images of flames superimposed over a caricature of the Salt Lake Temple and in front of those flames, scenes of rioters over-turning a police car and throwing garbage cans, I do not see a site for protesters but a site dedicated to terrorism.  When I see statements like this:

BURN the Olympics would like to express our condolences for all homeless people living in alley ways in the vicinity of the World Trade Center, all slave wage immigrants who clean WTC bathrooms, firefighters, and other such people who were harmed in this morning's actions.

with no mention of the thousands of others that died there or the dead in Washington, I see a group of people who believe that those inside the towers and at the Pentagon deserved to die.  As I have said before, and as I say again, blind emotion leads to rash actions.  Rash actions are wrong.  Judge for yourselves who these self-name anarchists and "Militant direct actionists" are and then view an alternative.

PRAY FOR PEACE

I have struggled over recent days with many things.  Among those things being two questions posed to me:  "How can you still believe in God when such evil is allowed to happen?" and "How can you reconcile your belief in God with continued support of a government ready to take our nation to war?"

It is not God's will that such things happen.1  It is his will that we be free to choose ourselves whether to follow his ways or not.  If we be free to choose eternal life and righteousness, we must also be free to choose death and evil.2  If God were to force any one of us to choose righteousness it would violate the very reason we live; which is to see if we will to follow God or not, if we will choose life or death.3  So also, if he had stretched forth his mighty hand and stopped those planes, he would have violated that purpose.  In either case he would be a liar and would, by the words of his own prophets, cease to be God.4  The blood of the slain and the tears of the living will eternally condemn before God those who have elected to chose death and evil over life and righteousness.5

The second question is at once more perplexing, more difficult and yet also easier to answer.  First, I renounce war.  I don't want to send my father, my brothers, or any citizen of this or any other nation into the infernal horrors of war.  I've reread my entries from Thursday and realize that I was somewhat the victim of the very blinding emotions I denounced.  Thankfully I have been reminded of things I knew about war, about protecting our families and about when nations should declare war.

What do I think will happen and what will I do in response to what happens?  Ideally, we would seek for Afghanistan to turn over Osama bin Laden for trial, which we've done after the embassy bombings in Africa and the attack on the USS Cole to name two incidents.  I have learned during the course of writing this that Pakistan will deliver an ultimatum on behalf of the United States to the effect that the Taliban must deliver bin Laden or else.  Unfortunately, ultimatums are usually doomed to failure from the outset, that's just their nature.  I pray, oh how I pray!, that I am wrong but history tends to bear that belief out.  This would put our nation in the tenuous position of either accepting Afghanistan's refusal to stop harboring this man and his organization or of taking military action.  My guess is that we would move militarily and that any such action would have two objectives:  Eliminate the threat from bin Laden and his organization and depose the Taliban.  In either case, I would expect this same scenario to be played out as each arm of bin Laden's network is uncovered.  This is not a very happy future.

What will I do?  I will write to my congressmen and remind them that God has asked us to renounce war and proclaim peace6 and I will pray for peace.  If the Congress of the United States of America declares war upon any nation, I will trust that they have first exhausted every other means available to avoid doing so and will support that declaration with my life.  If Congress instead says that we will not raise our hands against our enemies but will trust in God to fight our battles for us, then I will support that declaration with my life as well.

O God, the Eternal Father.  May thy spirit rest upon the leaders of all nations such that our peoples might not suffer the travails of war.  May our faith be found worthy in thy sight we ask in the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.

I see this report as a ray of hope even though the media is trying to put a negative face on it.  I had fully expected Mullah Mohammed Omar to denounce the delegation from Pakistan, if he were to even deign to meet with them.  Clearly, it could simply be his way of washing his hands of the affair by placing responsibility and subsequent blame for the decision upon the clerics.  I see, however, the impact that the faith and prayers of thousands petitioning God for peace.

Busy day today.  Someone has released a nasty worm and it appears to waltz right through all the security patches that MS has issued as it easily slipped onto two fully patched servers here at work (it's funny to see FixCDRed report that VirtualRoot was removed and the machine appears invulnerable to infection!)  The thing is known as Nimda and is spreading fast.  For the nay-sayers out here, here's a clue to the fact that it's not just a Code Red variant:  Code Red infections are dropping and no CR worms slipped through yesterday even though my server was bombarded as usual.  Less that one hour after the estimated release of this latest nasty my servers were infected and broadcasting.  Nasty mess to clean-up, it appears that rebuilding the server is the only way to completely remove the beast.

This entry is somewhat back to the norm here.  Hopefully the clerics in Afghanistan will allow the Whinery to move even futher back into the realm of "normal."  If all goes well, we'll be returning to the marvelous mix of thoughtful and dry humor that is the Whine Sampler and I'll introduce a wild delicacy to go with your daily Whine.  Until then, God bless us all.

I really hate reconfiguring servers.  They always run much better when completed but oh what a terribly annoying thing to have to do.  The one truly good thing to come of this attack, it gave me the upper hand in finally killing IIS altogether here.  I'll be installing Apache tomorrow, hurrah!  First though, I need to go home and go to bed.  Good night all!

A lot of people are calling for a return to normalcy.  I pray that we never return normal if normal means going back to the way we were on 10 September 2001.  My wife told me of a live news report from a street corner in downtown New York.  She said she thought to herself as she watched the cars stream behind this reporter, "No one is honking."  Only a moment later, the reporter made basically the same comment.  This tragedy has helped us realize how priceless human life really is and that we should treat each other with respect and love.  Unfortunately there are those boorish few that remain self-centered and uncaring, gratefully they are an extreme minority.

I do not want to return to normalcy if it means returning to a "me first" society.  I do not want to return to a society where greed and power are the driving motivators behind most people's thinking.  I love living in a society where television commercials mention "We're praying for them." and it's not a publicity stunt.  I love living in a society where people hunger to help each other, where people thirst for stories of generosity, where people ache to make someone else happy.  Why would I want to go back to what we had?

Let us not allow those who have died to have died in vain, let us not ever return to normalcy.  Let us always hold this tragedy bright in our memories, not as a reminder of the pain and grief and, yes, terror we felt and still feel but let us keep it bright in our memories as a beacon marking a great turning point in our society.  Let us never tarnished their memories by returning to normalcy but let us honor them in the kindness and love we show everyone around us.

Well I have finally done it, I have added Wild Hare to the menu here at The Whinery.  It's just a collection of random thoughts or quotes that make me laugh.  Right now it's solely populated by Terry Pratchett quotes courtesy of Fahim.  If you have a Wild Hare that you would like to see on The Whinery, Email it to me.

It's very odd, I almost feel guilty about not focusing on 11 September 2001.  Actually, there is no almost about it.  On the other hand, forever living in the past is just as destructive as ignoring the past.  If one has surgery on a knee or hip and then refuses to exercise that joint in therapy because it hurts too much, the knee or hip will quickly become useless.  I have the feeling that if I don't start to exercise my humor, my love of live, my own happiness because doing so makes me feel guilty, makes me feel comfortable than I will be stuck as I am now and will quickly become useless.  I am going to begin enjoying life again.  I have to do this so I don't shrivel up and die.

Last night we took the kids to a school carnival.  They had a blast, most of the rides were air filled jumping rooms, obstacle courses, and slides.  One was in the shape of winding dragon or sea horse, the kids climbed in the front end and came out the back end.  I heard more than one kid, including one of my own, make a comment about being digested.

Hello Darkness my old friend
Have you come to live with me again?
You've come early this year . . . but never fear
I've kept for you a room,
A place of sorrow and of gloom.
I see that on your wings
You carry the Muse that to my heart sings.
Sings the songs that hide deeply within my soul.

How long will you stay?
Have no fear, I'll not chase you away
But you've come early this year.
Is it because I've shed a tear
For those who've gone before us beyond the night?
Surely you have seen that my strength is gone
And so you've come with your Siren's song.

Darkness and sorrow have returned as is their habit but this year they have arrived early, far earlier than I can ever remember.  This year instead of fearing and hating their melancholy garb, I've welcomed them with open arms.  I've realized that, in an almost macabre sense, I enjoy their heavy footfall upon my heart.  Like some strange drug they loose my tongue and words, like those this morning, race to express what I feel.

There were times when they made the world seem so bleak that I longed to sleep and sleep never waking.  Now I only long to weep and bathe my mem'ries in tears (simple prose eludes my fingers tonight).  This time I shall let my spirit soar on the ashen wings of sorrow and speak freely the dolourous tones of my heart.

Does it pain you to know I travel happily these anguished roads?  Do not despair for me but rather revel with me in the shadows.

I wrote the following in response to Fahim's comments on posts 55 and 57 and thought I should share it on the main page as well:

LOL...it seems to be a mild case of Seasonal Affective Disorder (S.A.D.) that actually occurs bi-annually in my case, usually coming on strongest in mid-October and lasting until late November/early December and then a mild re-occurrence in April/May.  I say that it seems to be SAD as I've never had it diagnosed and have no intention of ever doing so.  During these times I hit a very predictable bi-polar mood pattern (which is a royal pain in the butt btw) swinging from very weepy to very giddy two or three times a day (exhausting actually).

So actually both your comments are correct.  I'm back and in this case it's both of me! ;o-)

It has come early but there are usually as many or more bright and happy times as there are dark and gloomy times, so I can't complain too much about it.  Besides, as I finally realized yesterday, I actually enjoy the reawakening of my creativity.

Well, it's been like balancing on a knife's thin blade but I've managed to stay on the upside today.  I can see him standing there on the edge of hearing beckoning softly for me to join him in his somber feast but he has come too soon.  It is too soon and I cannot hear clearly the silent song he sings.  I heard him, as he walked away, set a small gift aside and promise to return another day.

Well, it may just be possible that I've found the “cure” to my SADness, ssshhhh, don't tell the psych's or they'll come after me! ;o-)  Seriously, I just decided that this time I wasn't going to fight it.  If I felt sad, I was simply going to be sad.  If I felt “whatever” then that would be exactly the way I was going to feel and I refused to worry about it.  I warned my wife of my decision as well as a co-worker or two and poof!...well not really “poof” as I still feel the twinges of morose music singing in my soul but it's nothing like what I normally experience.  Best of all, I still feel an eloquence coursing through me.  As Brigham Young once said, “How happy I would have been if only I had known I was happy.”  It makes me wonder how much time I lost fighting my depression when if I had just let it roll over me, it might have had nothing to hold and so continued rolling right past me.

Let me close just by thanking you for reading the Whinery.  I find great pleasure in making these entries, my wife sometimes wishes I would find a little less enjoyment here, but I've found a great deal of peace being able to freely voice my opinion here, thanks everyone for listening to my Whine and I'll see you tomorrow.

Just can't quite quit.  I just posted the last entry even though it states 19:44 as it's timestamp, that's when I started writing that entry.  Anyway, I was going to mention that seeing the flag at full staff again brought great joy to my heart.  I won't take the time to explain my feelings for the flag tonight as I'm already having a hard time keeping my eyes open and that is not a short subject.

I also wanted to point out that on Wednesday the “In Memory” section will be relocated to the bottom of the page with a smaller graphic and the banner heading this page will disappear.  This does not mean that I want to forget what happened.  I, like you, will never be able to forget nor do I wish to forget.  It is, however, time for us to let the pain fade so the good we have learned can flourish and grow.

Not much time to write tonight, I have a new work schedule which requires that I wake-up by 4:00 a.m. so I can catch my bus.  There's quite a bit I wanted to write about tonight but I'll save it for tomorrow and the following days.  Tonight I just want to say something about my boys, not the two who are asleep upstairs but my other boys.  I mentioned before that I work with a group of young men.  I am what is known as a Young Men's President.  That means that I am generally responsible for the religious training and recreational/service activities of about 35 young men age 12 to 18.  I'm directly responsible for those who are 16 to 18, which means that at the moment I have 14 boys under my wing.  There are usually a very limited number of things which occupy the mind of a 16 to 18 year old young man: cars, girls, work, sports and sometimes school.  My boys have recently added something to that list: a widow who needs firewood for the winter.  They've been cutting down trees in the neighborhood (they were asked first of course) and stacking cords of firewood.  This weekend we have an overnighter planned and along with the requisite night games, fishing, bad cooking and general good fun we'll be cutting more firewood.  They never act too excited about doing this type of stuff, but the glow in their faces always tells me that this lack of excitement is usually just a show.  Well I just wanted to let you know that there are still boys who act like Norman Rockwell paintings.

Look for the next entry to be made tomorrow evening with details from the Strawberry overnighter.