On March 27, a naked-eye observer in mid-northern latitudes will be able to see five of our neighboring planets in the evening sky at once: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Saturn and Jupiter. It will take a low horizon and, of course, good weather to witness this unusual sight. I hope I remember this in two weeks. I will post again if I do to remind.

In another example of what it means to be a journalist, Amy Goodman is onboard the flight that is returning Haiti's President Aristide to the western hemisphere from Africa. She has been in Africa over the weekend documenting the story as it unfolds. Democracy Now! was also the first program to air speculations of a coup and to have an interview with Aristide himself following his so-called resignation. In this age of biliion dollar media companies it is alarming that a rinky-dink Pacifica station is the one breaking these stories. Obviously it is not that CNN/Fox/etal don't have the resources, rather they are typically avoiding a subject that our government does not want closely examined.

The government of Jamaica will host Aristide, though they are facing horrendous pressure not to. "Jamaican authorities are certainly taking on a risk and a responsibility," said James Foley, the US Ambassador to Haiti. "His coming within 150 miles from Haiti is promoting violence." Of course it could be said that ousting a democratically elected president and supporting the coup leaders is a good way to promote violence as well. The plane is set to land down within the hour (around noon today EST), and Amy will be there when it touches down providing us with a first-hand account of what transpires.

stop saying that! I don't wanna wait, i wannit now. i have a theory on friends that may or may not be fully taken from paul. more like adapted i think. paul started with the spots. ask him about it. i don't know how much he still believes. friends are there to be taken from. they are there to offer you something. we like te poeple who can teach us. i will go more in depth later. i am drunk. st patricks in buffalo is a sight to behold. people poeple everywhere. specially those underage. 15 yr old with full tankards and such. whimsical fantastical. fights? yeah sure, plenty. all in good fun? maybe maybe not, for me yeah, fun. i am a heathen though.

and yes, mel is a prophet, he sees, like the rest of us just don't see. just look and you'll see, the seer, he is profitic. very much so. the profits he does reap. profits of prophetism.

I hope it looks something like it did in 1946. Yippy yippy fun fun. Drunk before the sun goes down. Whoopie!!

new color scheme! ahhhhhh....
less wintery blue, i likes it. ku ku ku ku barabajagal. great song, donovan. ya'll should give it a listen or 10. So-a secret... how exciting...elipses...one of my favorite punctuations...whew...anyways, what i was saying. the picture of matt is adulterated. adulterated <giggle>. he's not being straight with ya folks. He changed certain, um, parts of the picture...well...part. You can maybe guess. It has to do with the size. maybe not what you immediately think though. ooooohhhh, secrets, so fun, the spice of life.

oh yeah, trisha, and emily too, bolgna and white bread, a little yellow store-brand mustard...ummmmm, one of my college faves myself. Don't touch the stufff now though, like hotdogs. I'm sure they still taste really yummy though. eeewwwwwggguuuhhhuummmmm

place we went last night. It was a nice place. In a big building somewhere. Strategically cluttered, everything randomly expressing the artistic proclivities of its owner. First thing there I tried some stuff on. Like sunglasses and a boot on my head. Sense was fleeting. We lit up a little and the already cozy place became more so. I was quite dizzy though. There was a book of stories on the floor-backwoodsy type tales. Two guys came over. I can't remember very much of them unfortunately. They seemed very nice and appealing, one even had read my journal and tried to talk about something erother in it. I hope I managed to answer. We lost Paul for a little. Eventually I found him in the bathtub. Which, by the by, is where the teeth are brushed. The sink is not useful for that purpose anymore as it is occupied by several (over 15 I'd say) things. I've never seen the like. A hairbrush, some beauty devices, maybe a shoe or two... We pulled Paul out of the bathroom and washed away his residue. Thus the trip ended. We made it home. Thanks Holly for staying lucid and taking care of us. I hope one day to be back, maybe at least start on the other end of my journey through brain-states.

Yes, I have crossed some strange line now. This morning I awoke from a dream which featured Noam Chomsky. He was coming for some kind of talk, which I helped arrange and attended. Then we all went out for a night on the town. There were a couple of people with us, the only one I can remember is my friend Leslie (one of my long lost friends from my last journal). We were out in some 3rd worldesque town (unpaved dirt streets etc.) and were looking for a bar to hang out in. Eventually we were somewhere and I was reading something Noam had written for me. It was in another language, mostly German though there were definately the words nostre and notre in it which are distinctly not German. Noam told me they were archaic but still usable (he is a world-renowned linguist after all). Leslie thought she would be able to read it, since we were in the same language courses (Japanese) in HS. She couldn't though, probably becuase it was my own strange dream language. Off to work...

I got two emails from long sorta-lost friends. Not as if I really don't know where they are, well really I don't, but I can contact them via email, so they're not technically lost. So I, in a very uncharacteristic manner, responded to both of them. It was a session of reminiscing. They are both from distinct and mostly unconnected timeframes in my life (one from HS, the other college), so it was strange remembering which memories went with which friends. Sorting out experiences, names, places, fun times, first times, etc. These happen to be two very good friends, not just run-of-the-mill types. Two people who I never would have chosen to live miles and miles away from, but through unavoidable circumstances we have become separated. It's kinda sad. Friends, how they come, how they go. People who mean so much to you at one time, and then suddenly they're just gone, never to be replaced, only remembered. The world is just so big nowadays. So many places, so many people, so little time. I wish I could pluck out the 50 people I liked the most in my life and put them on an island with me so they couldn't go away anymore (or I couldn't for that matter). Long-distance email and phone calls just aren't the same. You can read a little of their lives, but they might as well be a biography, you're not in it anymore. So morose, huh? Today the rememberescing was actually quite a pleasant experience. Thank you Leslie and Laven for giving me an excuse to bury my head in the past.

Technology should be a good thing. In its pure definition it means use of science, generally to advance some field or process. From manafacturing to medicine judicial use of technology makes us more efficient. Jobs that used to take many laborers and hours can now be performed with a much smaller percentage of laborers and man-hours. To many, technology is seen as robbing working people of jobs or decreasing their hours from simplification, and this is to a large extent true in our current system. The question, is where do the benefits of technology go?
An example: A call-site with a staff of 100 workers, paid $10/hour, takes 5000 calls/day. An automated line is developed which reduces the need for human assistance by half, in other words, only 2500 calls must be answered by workers. So, our workers' average calls/day has dropped from 50 to 25. What happens now? The standard corporate solution is to layoff half the workforce, or most of them, and make the remaining part-time. Thus, the benefits of the new technology are reaped only by the CEOs and shareholders. Is this the only way to operate? Why can't these technological benefits be assed on to the workers. Instead of a mass layoff, why don't we reduce the workweek from 40 to 35 hours (keeping the salary unchanged)? How about investing in education of your workforce? What about some paid vacation? These ideas are fast becoming unheard of. They don't fit into the standard model of "doing business."
Of course, it's not too hard to find examples of different systems, just look 50-60 years back in America or across the Atlantic. Some European countries still display this attitude of shorter workweeks, longer vacation, and more benefits, though how long this disparity will last under the pressures of modern "free-trade" and globalization is debatable. The point is that technology is not the problem, the distribution of its benefits is. Instead of going directly to CEO and shareholder accounts they should be more equally distributed throughout the workforce they affect.

Study finds differences between "gay" sheep and "straight" ones . Very weird thing to be studying if you ask me, but maybe helpful to the gay community. If it can be scientifically proven that gay people aren't making a choice to be gay but are rather genetically different than it is patently illegal to discriminate. Maybe.

And...this is just disturbing

(The sheep is on top)
Inflatable Party Sheep designed to be the friend you've always needed, the love you have always dreamed of. It's the little lamb you can love and will love you back. For all your sheep loving friends - bring out the beast in them. For centuries men the world over have known that a sheep is the next best thing to a woman. It is soft, sexy, and disease free!