shactman

AIM

2004-06-15T02:14:31Z

Wow, this was a hassle but a long time coming. PLEASE READ THIS... MUY IMPORTANTE

The History: (If you are in a rush- skip to the bottom) This is in brief why I hate AOL. Some of you have probably realized that I have not been online in a few months. The reason being that AOL is refusing to allow me to have the screan name that I have had since 7th grade because they are greedy assholes. (Ok, maybe a little harsh but they really are a pain in the ass.) Upon moving out to Wisconsin last year I decided I had no more se for AOL since my email was based out of my UW Account (bashactman@wisc.edu) and thus, I could function soley on AIM and save $25 or so a month. So I got rid of AOL and worked off of AIM for about 6 months. One beautiful morning I woke up to log on AIM and was told that my sn access was denied. I called AOL (which is always a fun little time) amd was told to go online to their tech support which irratated me a little. I went to their little online tech support chat room and asked why my sn was denied. They told me that they would not help me since I was no longer an AOL customer. That irrated me a lot. So I asked them to give me a number so I could call AIM tech support (since they only have email on their website). They said they would not help me!

So I searched the internet and found a whole lovely community of people with my same problem. I learned that if you orriganally created your sn on AOL and then get rid of your account- they cancel your sn after about 6 months even if you are active on AIM. Ok, no big deal, I was fine switching sn's, what pissed me off ws that I lost my buddy list and thus, lost each and everyone of you wonderful people who I comunicated with. However, there was a ray of hope. Apparently if you contact AIM and explain your problem, you have a slim chance of them reinstating your sn. (I think the chance is about as good as eating lunch peacefuly by the lab theater without Mr. H coming to visit you... and yes, I know that area is off limits now but oh the good old days).

So I emailed AIM who promise to respond within 24 hours to your question/problem. That was last April. I am still waiting for my response.

The Present: So I have finally bit the bullet and conceeded to the people at AOL that they have won and have created a new sn. It is

beantown828

For those of you Newtonites, Bean Town being my nickname that everyone calls me out at Wisc, and 828 being my birthday.

The Important Part: Because I have lost my buddy list, PLEASE PLASE PLASE im me so I can put you all on my list- I really feel like I have lost touch with a lot of you and feel awful about it because I really do care about you all and miss you when I am out west. Because there were about 80 names on my list, I can't even begin to remember the spelling and intricacies of more than about 10 of them so I am relying on you to help me here. Thank you all.

brian

Oh, and guess I should leave a little something for Matloff so here is a quote of the day, "This foreign policy stuff is a little frustrating."
-W as quoted in the New York Daily News 4/23/02

...I feel your pain brother

To all current seinors

2004-04-02T01:04:13Z

Hey all (especially class of 04),
for those of you cotemplating and waiting to know where you will be next year, a friend of mine emailed me this article the other day from the Times. It is written by David Brooks (yes Josh, a conservative columnist) and is one of the best and most rue things I have read in a long time. From a college perspective, it could not be closer to the truth.

Stressed For Success?
By David Brooks

Many of you high school seniors are in a panic at this time of year, coping with your college acceptance or rejection letters. Since the admissions process has gone totally insane, it's worth reminding yourself that this is not a particularly important moment in your life.

You are being judged according to criteria that you would never use to judge another person and which will never again be applied to you once you leave higher ed.

For example, colleges are taking a hard look at your SAT scores. But if at any moment in your later life you so much as mention your SAT scores in conversation, you will be considered a total jerk. If at age 40 you are still proud of your scores, you may want to contemplate a major life makeover.

More than anything else, colleges are taking a hard look at your grades. To achieve that marvelous G.P.A., you will have had to demonstrate excellence across a broad range of subjects: math, science, English, languages etc.

This will never be necessary again. Once you reach adulthood, the key to success will not be demonstrating teacher-pleasing competence across fields; it will be finding a few things you love, and then committing yourself passionately to them.

The traits you used getting good grades might actually hold you back. To get those high marks, while doing all the extracurricular activities colleges are also looking for, you were encouraged to develop a prudential attitude toward learning. You had to calculate which reading was essential and which was not. You could not allow yourself to be obsessed by one subject because if you did, your marks in the other subjects would suffer. You could not take outrageous risks because you might fail.

You learned to study subjects that are intrinsically boring to you; slowly, you may have stopped thinking about which subjects are boring and which exciting. You just knew that each class was a hoop you must jump through on your way to a first-class university. You learned to thrive in adult-supervised settings.

If you have done all these things and you are still an interesting person, congratulations, because the system has been trying to whittle you down into a bland, complaisant achievement machine.

But in adulthood, you'll find that a talent for regurgitating what superiors want to hear will take you only halfway up the ladder, and then you'll stop there. The people who succeed most spectacularly, on the other hand, often had low grades. They are not prudential. They venture out and thrive where there is no supervision, where there are no preset requirements.

Those admissions officers may know what office you held in school government, but they can make only the vaguest surmises about what matters, even to your worldly success: your perseverance, imagination and trustworthiness. Odds are you don't even know these things about yourself yet, and you are around you a lot more.

Even if the admissions criteria are dubious, isn't it still really important to get into a top school? I wonder. I spend a lot of time meeting with students on college campuses. If you put me in a room with 15 students from any of the top 100 schools in this country and asked me at the end of an hour whether these were Harvard kids or Penn State kids, I would not be able to tell you.

There are a lot of smart, lively young people in this country, and you will find them at whatever school you go to. The students at the really elite schools may have more social confidence, but students at less prestigious schools may learn not to let their lives be guided by other people's status rules -- a lesson that is worth the tuition all by itself.

As for the quality of education, that's a matter of your actually wanting to learn and being fortunate enough to meet a professor who electrifies your interest in a subject. That can happen at any school because good teachers are spread around, too.

So remember, the letters you get over the next few weeks don't determine anything. Picking a college is like picking a spouse. You don't pick the "top ranked" one, because that has no meaning. You pick the one with the personality and character that complements your own.

You may have been preparing for these letters half your life. All I can say is welcome to adulthood, land of the anticlimaxes.

bshactman @ 2004-02-29T17:47:00

2004-02-29T23:50:10Z

this picture was teken by the good doctor himself upon his arrival in Madison a few weeks ago. Interesting shot, amazing we both ended up in the picture.

To all who were in CFC

2004-02-24T03:57:32Z

Ok, so i know i haven't posted in ages but i figure some of you who were in Cuban Fizzle Crisis (i have no clue how many of you read this) would want to hear this. A few weekends ago, after a night of heavy partying I returned to my dorm to play some music with some friends on my floor. Quite a few people gathered around to listen. I was playing a banjo of all instruments (don't ask) and somebody asked me to play a funny song. So I played my personal favorite from CFC, Boobies. No one believed me that it was an actual song and thought I was pulling shit out of my ass. But alas, I had a cd.
Since then you would not believe how many people have asked to hear the song (the coppy I have is from the Natick show) and how many times I have emailed the mp3 to people. All I can say is that loads of people on my floor now love a band that they only know as a bunch of fun and crazy kids from the East Coast. CFC in Madison... pretty crazy, eh?
In other news I am coming home March 12th-21st. Can't wait to see anyone who will be around.

WOW

2003-10-18T04:47:32Z

I almost never post but this was too good to pass up. Unbelievable that i got it off of mattloff's journal.

<td bgcolor="#000000">Name:</td><td bgcolor="#DDDDAA"></td></tr><td bgcolor="#000000">God/Goddess type:</td><td bgcolor="#DDDDAA">Burning Bush</td></tr><td bgcolor="#000000">Worshippers:</td><td bgcolor="#DDDDAA">Monks (think Gregorian chant)</td></tr><td bgcolor="#000000">They show devotion by:</td><td bgcolor="#DDDDAA">Listening to Heavy Metal music</td></tr>

Are you a God? by Demonac

Created with quill18's MemeGen!

In other news, college is amazing. Hope everyone else is doing well. Drop me a line sometime, bashactman@wisc.edu

bshactman @ 2003-03-30T20:49:00

2003-03-31T01:53:01Z

The following was published in todays NY Times. I think it is one of the best analytical perspectivs I have read yet (although as everyone knows, I am very bias). If you have a minute, read it.
Mattloff, if you get the chance, I would love for you to respond to it, or at least unblock me from your buddy list so that we can discuss it. I would be interested to hear your opinion on it.

Back Off, Syria and Iran!
By MAUREEN DOWD
WASHINGTON —We're shocked that the enemy forces don't observe the rules of war. We're shocked that it's hard to tell civilians from combatants, and friends from foes. Adversaries use guerrilla tactics; they are irregulars; they take advantage of the hostile local weather and terrain; they refuse to stay in uniform. Golly, as our secretary of war likes to say, it's unfair.
Some of their soldiers are mere children. We know we have overwhelming, superior power, yet we can't use it all. We're stunned to discover that the local population treats our well-armed high-tech troops like invaders.
Why is all this a surprise again? I know our hawks avoided serving in Vietnam, but didn't they, like, read about it?
"The U.S. was planning on walking in here like it was easy and all," a young marine named Jimmy Paiz told ABC News this weekend with a rueful smile. "It's not that easy to conquer a country, is it?"
We will conquer the country, and it will be gratifying to see the satanic Saddam running like a rat through the rubble of his palaces. But it was hard not to have a few acid flashbacks to Vietnam at warp speed.
The hawks want Iraq to be the un-Vietnam, to persuade us that war is a necessary disciplinary tool of the only superpower, that America has a moral duty to spread democracy. This time, we crush the opposition swiftly. This time, the domino theory works in reverse, as repressive regimes in the Middle East fall in a chain reaction set off by a democratic Baghdad. Yet in just a week we've seen peace marches, world opinion painting us as belligerent, and draining battlefield TV images.
We saw American commanders expressing doubts about a war plan that the Pentagon insisted was going splendidly while being vague about the body count. "The enemy we're fighting is a bit different than the one we war-gamed against," Lt. Gen. William Wallace, the Army's senior ground commander, told reporters. (No doubt, that truthful heads up will earn General Wallace a slap down.)
Retired generals were even more critical of the Rumsfeld doctrine of underwhelming force. The defense chief is so enamored of technology and air power that he overrode the risk of pitting 130,000-strong American ground forces — the vast majority of the front-line troops have never fired at a live enemy before — against 350,000 Iraqi fighters, who have kept their aim sharp on their own people.
The incoherence of the battle plan — which some retired generals say is three infantry divisions short — has made the guts and stamina and ingenuity of American forces even more remarkable.
Rummy was beginning to erase his fingerprints. "The war plan," he said, "is Tom Franks's war plan." Tommy, we hardly knew ye.
Paul Wolfowitz, Rummy's deputy, conceded that the war planners may have underestimated the hardiness of the heartless Iraqi fighters.
This admission is galling. You can't pound the drums for war by saying Saddam is Hitler and then act surprised when he proves ruthless on the battlefield.
In their wild dreamscape, the hawks envision Iraq as the rolling start of a broader campaign to bring other rogue states, like Iran and North Korea, to heel.
But in pursuit of what they call a "moral" foreign policy, they stretched and obscured the truth. First, they hyped C.I.A. intelligence to fit their contention that Saddam and Al Qaeda were linked. Then they sent Colin Powell out with hyped evidence about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. Then, when they were drawing up the battle plan, they soft-pedaled C.I.A. and Pentagon intelligence warnings that U.S. troops would face significant resistance from Saddam's guerrilla fighters.
In cranking up their war plan with expurgated intelligence, the hawks left the ground troops exposed and insufficiently briefed on the fedayeen. Ideology should not shape facts when lives are at stake.
Asked about General Wallace's remarks, Donald Rumsfeld shrugged them off, noting that anyone who read Amnesty International reports should have known the Iraqis were barbarians.
Rummy was too busy shaking his fist at Syria and Iran to worry about the shortage of troops in Iraq.
As one administration official marveled: "Hasn't the guy bitten off enough this week?"

bshactman @ 2003-03-30T13:40:00

2003-03-30T19:03:04Z

In light of yesterdays rally, i have decided to post some of my favorite anti-war signs that I saw throughout the day. While I may not completely agree with all of them- I thought many were very clever. Those of you there with me, feel free to add to the list cause I cannot even come close to remembering all of those that we comemted on.

George W. Bush is pro-life: Offer not valid in certain areas.
Let's bomb Texas, they have oil too.
Bush, Chaney, Rumsfeld, The three asses of evil.
Regime change starts at home.
O peration
I raqi
L iberation
yeah right
War is a weapon of mass destruction.

In addition here are some of my memories from the day.
Standing at the top of Boylston St and seeing people as far as the eye could see.
Marching past the apartment and seeing the people waving the French Flag from the window.
Getting a text message on Ari's phone from Jo saying she saw us on T.V.
Watching the idiot sitting on top of the lamp post at the rally cursing at all of us becuse we were rallying against the war.
Watching the same idiot flap his arms as he fell to the ground when the lamp post broke.
Marching with the drummers and every few minutes listen to the wistle that would symbolize the call for 30,000 people to yell "Drop Bush, not bombs!"
Dancing in the street by Shreeve Crump and Low to the beat of the Boston Drummers and ring of the church clock.
When Newton South marched with Newton Dialouges and Mrs. Planenie (sp?)
Seeing Cascino and his family- a true symbol of an anti-war movement.
Marching past the cop who was decked out in riot gear yet giving us the peace sign and a big thumbs up.
Watching the spectators in awe as the streets of boston were filled with people being patriotic to this country.
Seeing my dad recalling the days when he stood on the common protesting and hearing him say how proud he was of me.
Being with good friends to share the moment.

In a weekend that has been mared by disapointment and in a world that has that has been dominated by shock and sadness- this one couple of hours I will remember for a long time in a very bittersweet yet fond way.

Senate Remarks by Robert C. Byrd, March 19, 2003

2003-03-29T00:31:06Z

"The Arrogance of Power"

US Senator Robert C. Byrd said yesterday "I believe in this beautiful country. I have studied its roots and gloried in the wisdom of its magnificent Constitution. I have marveled at the wisdom of its founders and framers. Generation after generation of Americans has understood the lofty ideals that underlie our great Republic. I have been inspired by the story of their sacrifice and their strength. "

Senator Byrd said "But, today I weep for my country. I have watched the events of recent months with a heavy, heavy heart. No more is the image of America one of strong, yet benevolent peacekeeper. The image of America has changed. Around the globe, our friends mistrust us, our word is disputed, our intentions are questioned."

He added "Instead of reasoning with those with whom we disagree, we demand obedience or threaten recrimination. Instead of isolating Saddam Hussein, we seem to have isolated ourselves. We proclaim a new doctrine of preemption which is understood by few and feared by many. We say that the United States has the right to turn its firepower on any corner of the globe which might be suspect in the war on terrorism. We assert that right without the sanction of any international body. As a result, the world has become a much more dangerous place."

He added "We flaunt our superpower status with arrogance. We treat UN Security Council members like ingrates who offend our princely dignity by lifting their heads from the carpet. Valuable alliances are split. After war has ended, the United States will have to rebuild much more than the country of Iraq. We will have to rebuild America's image around the globe."

Senator Byrd said "There is no credible information to connect Saddam Hussein to 9/11. The twin towers fell because a world-wide terrorist group, Al Qaeda, with cells in over 60 nations, struck at our wealth and our influence by turning our own planes into missiles, one of which would likely have slammed into the dome of this beautiful Capitol except for the brave sacrifice of the passengers on board. The brutality seen on September 11th and in other terrorist attacks we have witnessed around the globe are the violent and desperate efforts by extremists to stop the daily encroachment of western values upon their cultures. That is what we fight. It is a force not confined to borders. It is a shadowy entity with many faces, many names, and many addresses. But, this Administration has directed all of the anger, fear, and grief which emerged from the ashes of the twin towers and the twisted metal of the Pentagon towards a tangible villain, one we can see and hate and attack. And villain he is. But, he is the wrong villain."

Senator Byrd asked "What is happening to this country? When did we become a nation which ignores and berates our friends? When did we decide to risk undermining international order by adopting a radical and doctrinaire approach to using our awesome military might? How can we abandon diplomatic efforts when the turmoil in the world cries out for diplomacy? Why can this President not seem to see that America's true power lies not in its will to intimidate, but in its ability to inspire?"

Senator Byrd said "The case this Administration tries to make to justify its fixation with war is tainted by charges of falsified documents and circumstantial evidence. We cannot convince the world of the necessity of this war for one simple reason. This is a war of choice."

Thanks Ari

2003-03-27T01:29:30Z

bshactman @ 2003-03-24T17:23:00

2003-03-24T22:23:53Z

RE11MA: Students back from Spring Break at SFU are on strike. Trying to shut down the college altogether. I heard this said, "We remember our older brothers and sisters demonstrating against the Vietnam War, and we feel exactly the same way about this one. Except, we don't have time for another Vietnam - we are trying to get it over with NOW, not years from now."

Helen Thomas

2003-02-26T20:31:14Z

Well, after going a long time without updating my journal, i have decided to update again. How often and when- who knows. The following transcrpit was inspired by aris jornal and is a conversation between Helen Thomas and Ari Fliecher. For those of you who dont know of helen thomas, she is one of the longest and most respected members of the White House Press Core. Thomas has asked very tough questions of all presidents whether it be Johnson, Nixon, Reagon, Clinton or now Bush. The following is one such session.

January 6, 2003 – 12:35 P.M. EST

MR. FLEISCHER: Good afternoon and happy New Year to everybody. The President began his day with an intelligence briefing, followed by an FBI briefing. Then he had a series of policy briefings. And this afternoon, the President will look forward to a Cabinet meeting where the President will discuss with members of his Cabinet his agenda for the year. The President is going to focus on economic growth, making America a more compassionate country, and providing for the security of our nation abroad and on the homefront.

And with that, I'm more than happy to take your questions. Helen.

HELEN THOMAS: At the earlier briefing, Ari, you said that the President deplored the taking of innocent lives. Does that apply to all innocent lives in the world? And I have a follow-up.

MR. FLEISCHER: I refer specifically to a horrible terrorist attack on Tel Aviv that killed scores and wounded hundreds. And the President, as he said in his statement yesterday, deplores in the strongest terms the taking of those lives and the wounding of those people, innocents in Israel.

MS. THOMAS: My follow-up is, why does he want to drop bombs on innocent Iraqis?

MR. FLEISCHER: Helen, the question is how to protect Americans, and our allies and friends --

MS. THOMAS: They're not attacking you.

MR. FLEISCHER: -- from a country --

MS. THOMAS: Have they laid the glove on you or on the United States, the Iraqis, in 11 years?

MR. FLEISCHER: I guess you have forgotten about the Americans who were killed in the first Gulf War as a result of Saddam Hussein's aggression then.

MS. THOMAS: Is this revenge, 11 years of revenge?

MR. FLEISCHER: Helen, I think you know very well that the President's position is that he wants to avert war, and that the President has asked the United Nations to go into Iraq to help with the purpose of averting war.

MS. THOMAS: Would the President attack innocent Iraqi lives?

MR. FLEISCHER: The President wants to make certain that he can defend our country, defend our interests, defend the region, and make certain that American lives are not lost.

MS. THOMAS: And he thinks they are a threat to us?

MR. FLEISCHER: There is no question that the President thinks that Iraq is a threat to the United States.

MS. THOMAS: The Iraqi people?

MR. FLEISCHER: The Iraqi people are represented by their government. If there was regime change, the Iraqi --

MS. THOMAS: So they will be vulnerable?

MR. FLEISCHER: Actually, the President has made it very clear that he has not dispute with the people of Iraq. That's why the American policy remains a policy of regime change. There is no question the people of Iraq --

MS. THOMAS: That's a decision for them to make, isn't it? It's their country.

MR. FLEISCHER: Helen, if you think that the people of Iraq are in a position to dictate who their dictator is, I don't think that has been what history has shown.

MS. THOMAS: I think many countries don't have -- people don't have the decision -- including us.

completion

2002-06-18T04:41:51Z

junior year is done. Mixed emotions, but overall, relief.

bshactman @ 2002-06-03T00:07:00

2002-06-03T04:15:26Z

Hmmm, kinda wierd
Im tired
Im sick of school
I am angry with certain parental people
I have done homework all day
I still have more to do
No more congress for 3 months (= too much free time?!?)

Yet, I am pretty happy.
Jeeze, I hate it when I can't explain my emotions

***
Reflection for the day,
"Alber Einstien was so slow to speak as a child that his parents were afraid he was retarted. When they asked a teacher what courses the boy should take, the teacher replied that it did not matter since the boy would never be a success at anything."
-The AMERCIANS A History

bshactman @ 2002-05-23T22:42:00

2002-05-24T02:44:29Z

ok, so i just finished packing. I have a box filled with over 50 files and I am so phsyed to leave for pittsburg tomarrow morning for nationals. See you all on Monday!

Reflection for the day:
"Yankees suck, Yankees suck,"
-any real baseball fan

bshactman @ 2002-05-14T22:38:00

2002-05-15T02:40:40Z

YEAH CELTICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
WHAT A YEAR TO BE A BOSTON FAN.

bshactman @ 2002-05-13T22:56:00

2002-05-14T03:06:22Z

Everything is so confusing in my life right now. I wish i could just take a week and have time stop in its tracks, just to think things over. I feel like I have upset someone who I have been trying to please and as a result, I feel so selfish.

I have nationals in less than two weeks. I wish I could just sit at my computer and prep for them, just to take my mind off everything. I am sick of thinking and anylyzing everything, I wish I could sometimes just accept things for face value and not divulge into layers upon layers of them. I didnt mean for this to sound so negative, I'm really not that unhappy. I just feel kinda down for some reason. Oh well, I'm sure sleeping in on Wednesday will do me well. Thank you sophomores.

***
Reflection for the day
"You can fool some of the people all of the time or all of the people some of the time, but you can't fool all of the people, all of the time.
-Abraham Lincoln

In refute

2002-05-01T22:50:15Z

Mr. Mattloff,
With all due respect, and since you didnt leave your comment section open, I want to appolagize for your recent reason for relocation. But at the same time, just like you strongly believe that a women has a right to choose, I strongly believe that people should have the right to have a say in our democratic system. By voting for the override, we left the decision to the people and clearly, their decision was clear-better schools, better safety and a better way of life. So thank you for saying thank you to all those who voted for the override, anytime pal.
At the same time however, I understand your concearn. Retired people deserve lower taxes. That is why Newton is currently 34th on a long list of cities that have the most expensive taxes. By voting to affirm the override, we only affirmed what everytown with the exception of watertown has allready done. Needham, for example, has passed two overrides. I dont think an extra $400 a year will bankrupt any elderly person, especially one who lives in Newton.
But what this extra $400 does is affirm a long standing position of excellence in the Newton Public Schools. It affirms that every student will have a fair and wonderful chance to learn. It affirms that every resident can feel safe in a post September 11th world. It affirms that all residents can retain high property values and without exception affirms that Newton will continue to remain one of the greatest places to live in the Commenwealth of Massachussetts. No one likes to see taxes increased, but unfortunately, when the state cuts your funding and has a governor that spends reckliously on projects such as the Big Dig and the "I Need to Steal More Police Helicopter Fund" there is unfortunitly no other viable alternative. Unfrtunitly, that is how things are in this world now.
But the fundamental, underliying theme, is that I deserve a better education. Bryan, Talya, Mike, Eric, Tim, Sandy, Adi and the whole lot of them deserve a better education. Clearly you need a better education because currently, you seem quite uneducated on the subject. The floor is open for debate my friend, you started it, back it up.
Brian Shactman

bshactman @ 2002-04-28T19:05:00

2002-04-28T23:07:35Z

man it has been a very wierd weekend. A lot of stuff going on, all of which is very confusing. States was a bit of a dissapointment for me, I placed fifth which was good but I think I could have done better. I feel especially bad for my friend Dan Chaparian who got screawed in the judging because they didnt count one of his speeches. O, well there is always next year.

bshactman @ 2002-04-26T23:55:00

2002-04-27T03:57:36Z

tomarrow is my day. I have been gearing up for this tournament for so long and now, on its eve I am ready, phsyed and calm (although I guarrentee I woun't be calm come tomarrow morning). Things are going really well for me right now, hopefully, they will continue for one more saturday. Its nothing too important- only the state championiship. Good luck Shaq (its a motavation thing)

bshactman @ 2002-04-13T11:07:00

2002-04-13T15:08:07Z

life is good right now. Today I am going to the sox yankees game. Tomarrow I leave for D.C. to look at Georgetown, Goerge Washington and Maryland. From there on wednesday I leave for Fort. Lauderdale Florida and the Whyndam Resort, host to this years National Congress Tournament Of Champions (my first nationals!) and come home late monday night, hopefully with a big trophy in my carry-on suitcase. Have a kick ass break everyone, when we get back, its the home stretch, it will be over soon and then... SUMMER.

reflection for the day
something i came across in my research for this weeks tournament, kind of liked it.
"The President has only 190 million bosses. The Vice President has 190 million and one."
-Hubert Humphrey

that was refreshing

2002-04-09T14:58:06Z

ahhhhh, thank you MCAS

one acts

2002-03-24T05:19:42Z

I just wanted to let everyone know that I saw almost all of the one acts the past two days and I thoughraly enjoyed everyone of them. These productions have been the most enjoyable that I have ever seen at south. To all the actors, you guys were great. And to Nick Currly, I dont know if you are reading this but I saw True West twice and thought that it was incredible. I always admired your talent as an actor, you have amazing talent as a director as well. Good job everyone on a job excellently done. In the spirit of a memorable drunken Ron Kendler, keep on rocking the casbah.

YEEEEAAAAAH

2002-03-17T05:03:19Z

i just got back from a speech tournament and managed to qualify for CFL nationals! I can't belive it. Special thanks to david, maya, tim and alex who all rose gloriously to the occasion - even you tim for killing the cuba bill- Thank you so much for helping us dominate in the event. Also thank you to the entire team who put up with me having a basic nervous breakdown all day and encouraged me thoughout. Also thanks to all my friends who enouraged me throughout the week and wished me luck, it may have seemed insignificant but a few words goes a long way in building confidence and poise. Thanks guys. Man, its kinda wierd. In september, if you told me i would have been on the speech team this year and in addition be going to nationsals i would have laughed at you. Its amazing how quickly things change.
***
reflection for the day
"If the opposite of pro is con, than the opposite of progress is congress" - Mr. Crocker and the entire senate in chamber B.

heintz

2002-02-05T19:58:28Z

in light of what everyone is doing, here is my heintzleman. Feel free to read it if you have time and/or comment. I just got back from the parade which was amzing. More to come about that later!

Refraction
Joseph felt alone, un empowered and scared of the world in which he lived in. Hatred had
boiled inside, pushing at his flesh, wanting to break free. Before the war, he was happy, there was
food on the table, a school to go to, and a promising career as a banker or perhaps an investor.
Then the depression hit and everything changed. His old boyish smile, gone. The light hearted
laughter, lost. The keen and confident sense of a bright and prosperous future, in the past. The
once strong, sandy haired kid with big sky blue eyes had transmuted into a sagging, flimsy adult.
What Joseph had witnessed, what he had done, had taught him one of the hardest lessons in life
and charity that a human would ever have to endure, and after enduring it, Joseph would never be
the same again.
The road, as usual, was empty except for Joseph. It was an old country road, abandoned
when the war came to the home front, yet never touched by the forces of evil. Although war
never reached its grasp, it has been seldom inhabited since. Joseph liked it?s quietness, he liked
the seclusion, it was his road, his place. There was the occasional bend, the smooth yellow line,
the big barn that he would always pass about 45 minutes into his now daily, sometimes twice daily
walk. Joseph liked the smell of the crisp air, the calm breeze that slipped past him. The road
reminded Joseph of how things once were, and the person he once was.
Some people tried to tell him that it wasn?t his fault, he had no choice, no one could have
known. He had been under orders. His mother tried to comfort him, sooth him, his father would
give him a pat on the back telling him how noble it was to serve ones country. During his walks,
Joseph would think that he could overcome his bout of depression. Maybe they would never
know. But every time he walked the road, his mind would flash back to the day that officials from
the German police came to his home.
The sun had been about to reach high noon one Sunday morning when there was a rasp at
the door. Joseph saw them coming from a distance. He was initially scared, but he had expected
them to come eventually; he was ready for them. He opened the door to two men in uniform, tall,
stern faced. After identifying themselves and entering his house they began their interrogation;
one Joseph had been dreading since the end of the war. His fellow officers had spoken to them,
he knew what would come of it, he knew things were not ok. The shear thought, the shear dread
of having to remember that horrible, horrific night, was a heavy burden which he could no longer
bare.
The police were frank, they asked him about his experience in the concentration camp,
what he had done, when he had been sent there. He told them in short. He had been young when
Hitler came to power, his family had been poor. The mark had been worth so little that
oftentimes his family would go all day without food on the table. He joined the army in hopes of
helping his family, his country. He never envisioned what Hitler really had in store. They asked
about the daily routine and how much of the rumors of the number of atrocities were true. He
answered, to the best of his knowledge. They asked him why he didn?t leave the Nazi?s when he
knew what Hitler was doing. He had been under orders, he would have been killed. With every
answer, the Police officials became more belligerent with him. He could see Nuremberg on the
horizon. Today they came to interrogate him, within the coming weeks they would return and
arrest him. Joseph had feared what was to come, and as the interrogation went on, he began to
realize how wet his hands were. Sweat. Everything had been routine so far, basic stuff..
Then they dropped the bombshell. They had witnesses.
?We know about that night,? one official said.
?There were a lot of nights, which one do you mean?? Joseph questioned knowing
without a doubt which night.
?Tell us what happened. Tell us what happened with the children.? The belligerent man?s
voice boomed like the guns. ?Damn it,? Joseph thought. He could still hear them, their screams
echoed through his mind like a shrill whistle reverberating off every part of his brain. His mind
flashed further back, to that cold drivel of a night less than a year ago.
It had been pouring rain, much harder than any other night in the camp. Joseph was on
patrol, checking the perimeter. He was tired, cold and wet. On he trekked, around and around
the camp. Once, twice three laps. At the end of his third lap he passed headquarters. He needed
to rest, just quickly dry off. He stumbled over to the door and pushed it open. The warm dimly lit
room was empty except for a dispatcher and a commanding officer and a 4 empty bottles of Jack
Daniels. Taking note of Joseph?s presence, the commander looked up.
?You there,? he ordered ?You on patrol?? The commander?s red eyed gaze was slightly
to the left of Joseph, but it was clear that it was Joseph being addressed.
Joseph nodded.
?Go down to sector, sector....? Clearly disgruntled the commander un crumpled a piece of
dispatch paper on the table. ?J,? he shouted as if he was addressing a room full of people. ?Over
near the mess hall. There?s a group of hungry kids, go,? he grumbled while waving his finder in
some erratic motion. ?dispose of them.?
Joseph gasped. ?Mmm... me sir? Dispose of them??
?What do you think I mean, hurry up and do it, before they get into the food.?
Joseph couldn?t, he wouldn?t. He had heard stories of innocent people being killed by his
comrades but Joseph thought he would never be a killer. Joseph didn?t move, partly because he
was confused, partly because he was cold, but mostly because he couldn?t.
The belligerent commander glared at Joseph, ?Now that?s a God damn order, move!? At
the same time that he was yelling this, he reached into his holster and began fiddling with his gun.
Joseph stumbled out the door. He loaded his weapon with icy bullets, hands shaking the
entire time. He was soaking wet, not from rain, but from fear. He proceeded to walk towards
sector J and emptied his rounds into the hearts and souls of the purest victims of histories most
filthy war.
He had to, he had no choice. Or did he? It would be the ?did he? that plagued him for the
rest of his life.
* * *
The sun was setting now as Joseph reversed his direction on the road to head home.
Maybe they would be waiting, maybe not. But it would be soon, they always arrest you after the
interrogation. It was only a matter of time before his name appeared among the list of thousands
involved in the Nuremberg Trials. But it didn?t matter, nothing mattered. It was his fault.
He wanted to blame it on the commander for giving the order, the kids for being hungry,
Hitler for coming to power, Germany for invading France over 20 years ago. He wanted to blame
the worthless Mark and the evil mark of death. He wanted to blame a million forces all
converging together to form the human races most terrible act of aggression.
But he couldn?t. In the end, ultimately it was him and only him who had to make a
decision. He took the cowards way out. He killed, rather than be killed.
He had reached the final turn in the road, around the corner was his house. The usual
tears fell though his face, the waiting and the tension was too much for him.
He knew it wouldn?t be much longer.

reflection for the day
"From the moment I picked your book up until I laid it down I was convulsed with laughter. Some day I intend reading it. "
- Groucho Marx (1895-1977)

Here It Is

2002-02-05T02:36:35Z

We knew it would happen.

Maybe not in our lifetime, maybe not in our kids lifetime but one of these days, a Boston team would win. The last time it happened, we went from the greatest to the worst in a matter of months. In 86, our parents saw Bird steal the ball and pass it to DJ, icing a trip to the championship that everyone in the Milky Way knew we would win but then three months later the pride was shattered when Mookie Wilson stole the ball and passed it to Bill Buckner who couldn't hang on. The scene would get lower in the years to come. Bird flew away and Roger "the Rocket" Clemins blasted out of town. The Garden was dead, along with the celics and bruins. Big Bully Bill Parcelss took us to the Super Bowl, true, but then taught us a lesson in what it truly means to be a failer. The Sox tried, but the Bronx Bombers always seemed to get in the way.

And it sucked. It sucked to be a sports fan and have no god damn team that ever in a million years had a shot at being the best.

This year seemed no different. The Sox went from best to worst in a matter of days, and there looked to be no hope for the pats as expectations in Sports Illustrated predicted another 5-11 season and the big, tough St. Louis Rams to be the best.

But, has Sports Illustrated ever picked correctly?

0-2 after two weeks, the 100 million quaterback gone. September 11th came and everything remotely close to sports was forgotten in our minds. No one believed in the Pats now, but then again, no one believed in them beofre.

But then, magic. In our nation's most patriotic of times, the New England Patriots, now known as the Brady Bunch, began something that can only be described as a miracle. It was as if the old lepracaun finally left the demolished rafters of the Garden and took comuter rail south west to Foxburrogh. You know what? He probibly did.

How else can you explain the final, unbelievable nine game winning streak?
How else can you explain oakland loosing their last four games to give us a bye?
How else can you explain to me the rule of "tucking" the ball verses passing it? (actually, i doubt the lep could understand that either but whose arguing)
How else could you explain Kordell Stewart fumbling the ball, having the fumble overturned and then fumbling again on the very snap?
How else can you explain being 14 point underdogs
to the Rams, and yet to the shocking the rest of the nation?

Well, the answer is teamwork, heart and a little bit of the 'olde bean town miracals that we seem to have forgotten about for the last 16 years. But it came back this year, just as often as the Patriots seem to go back to the bayu, and let me tell you, as a hometowm sports fan, having that luck, that miracle means so much. I even begin to wait to leave for the T tomarrow morning on my way to the parade.

Today, in Mighty Subs some trucker came in and said he was lost. He said he could've sworn the town he was looking for use to be right here. Well, Mudville has moved folks, it got on 128, took a right by Pennsylvania and headed down I65 stright towards St. Louis.

The joy is back in Boston fans. The drought of 16 years is over and hey, today, tomarrow and for the rest of the week, everyone should be proud to say "I'm from New England." Casey has hit the home run and tomarrow the Vince Lumbardy Trophie will be paraded around Bean Town for all New Englander's to enjoy.

***
Reflection for the day
"Well I love that dirty water. Yeah, Boston you're my home!" - the Standells