Dawn of the cyber dead

This world gets scarier and scarier in the PC world. It makes you wonder how long it will be before we don't think it is worth sticking with the computer.

The latest attack, the Sober virus. Once launched, the Sober virus scans the user's hard drive for e- mail addresses and sends the bogus e-mail to new recipients. After that, it awaits further instructions from its creator, effectively transforming the infected system into a remote-controlled zombie computer that can be used for further spamming or computer attack.

I guess the good news is that it doesn't dine on human flesh. Even if my computer has gone "zombie" at least I know it may only be going for my identity and not my life. At least one thing to be grateful for.

All that Glitters could be shot

Gary Glitter is in the news. It's been a long time since he has been heard of. He is an icon in our culture for his classic hit, Rock n' Roll Part 2. He is a meaningful part of our culture as he has enabled a group of insane football fans to yell "HEY!" the same time at specific intervals, which can be pretty complicated when alcohol is involved.

Gary was considered a "Glam Rocker" from the late 90's. His works include a couple best hits albums as well as a single of Rock n' roll part 2. Where is part 1? How do you have best hits albums when your original albums are not to be found?

So what is Gary up to now? He has been hiding out in Vietnam accused of having sex with a 12 year old Vietnamese girl. What happens if he is convicted? He could be executed by firing squad or given life in a Vietnam prison. Gee, what to choose?

Either way, if Gary is convicted, this world will lose a great contributor to American society. Hey Gar, we'll miss you, but don't forget you will be memorialized everytime "HEY" is chanted at a football game. Your legacy will live on.

It's great to be an ex

On the news it was reported that the gunman, Dominick Sergio Maldonado, who opened fire in a Tacoma mall, in Washington State, had sent text messages to several of the people he knew saying that soon the world would feel his pain. One person he sent the text to was Bret Strickler, who said he was Maldonado's best friend. Another person he texted was his ex-girlfriend, Tiffany Robison. She was on the news talking about how sad it was that he was reaching out and no one was there to help him.

He sent you the freaking text message!!!!!!! OMG! WHERE WERE U?!!!!

I suppose it's not her job. After all she is an ex. So whose job is it to help people with their pain? There are half a dozen people who are helping Muldonado with his pain by recovering at local hospitals. How do they deal with their pain?

Hey Tiff, next time a friend in pain contacts you, do this world a favor. Don't pawn this off as a societal problem that someone should have been there. You were there. GET THEM HELP YOURSELF!

Sustained by love

One thing that is fun about getting older (and there aren’t many things that are fun about getting old) is that you get to see how people turn out.

I saw a couple I didn’t recognize get out of a car at church. I got in the building before them and was talking to other people. The man I'd seen in the parking lot entered the building, walked up to me and thrust his hand out to me. When I recognized him, he threw his arms around me in a bear hug.

This man was a little boy when I first met him. As he grew, his life became increasingly troubled. I'm not surprised that I hadn't recognized him. I had seen him pierced, dyed, wild and restless. He was a changeling, trying to figure out who he was.

I hadn’t seen him for a few years. As he grew, he was loved. He was held accountable for his out-of-control behavior, but he was never rejected. I had a very small role in his life. My job was to love and accept him regardless of who he was becoming whenever I saw him. I did, and regardless of his circumstances he accepted that love hungrily.

Now here he was strutting down the hall with a girlfriend in tow. He looked like he had settled some scores with the world and was attempting to bring meaning to his life. He looked confident. I’m sure he still struggles with demons from his past, but he continues on, sustained by love.

It is tempting to believe that we are here because of ourselves. We are not. We are here because of people who loved us, who believed in us, and wanted the best for us. For most it is family, for some it is unrelated believers. And don't count out the incidental accomplices in our lives that gave us random words of encouragement. We are all sustained by love.

It's all about connection

I was running through the blog circuit, checking out to see who had new entries. One of the blogs acknowledged the birthday of a fellow blogger and so, curious, I went to his site. He described how his pastor had died that day from electrocution. I read with horror about a good man who, in an instant of a wrong decision, accidently ended his life. It was sad and tragic.

In the several days following, I saw that story making its way through the internet home pages and news reports. It was in such small spots that if I hadn't known the story, I might not have seen it. It occurred to me that we notice more and feel more if we have some sort of connection to the person, story, or event. Mine was a friend of a friend.

In high school a classmate of mine died. She was not a real close friend but she was someone I talked to a couple times a week and we shared some of what we were thinking. She was killed in a scuba diving accident. What amazed me was how many people claimed her as their good friend after she died. The whole school was her friend.

In that same vein, isn't that we are attempting to do when we name drop. Somehow by knowing someone makes us someone. I met Jack Lord once. These days people say "Who?" His famous line was "Book 'em Danno!" Why is it that groupies will follow after their idols, and pay large fees for autographed memorabilia.

I think we all want to know that we matter and we tend to do it through who we can demonstrate we have had a connection with.

Reporting the news

We like to believe that news is reported. I believe it is sold. While the flooding was going on with Katrina, service personnel and civilians were still being killed in Iraq. That took a back seat to the carnage of the gulf coast states. Today there was a piracy attempt against a cruise liner. The reports documented 3 or 4 other attacks that I don't remember ever even seeing.

Now Geraldo wants to sell the news with passion. What is that? Does he pace the stage like a televangelist yelling "Jaysus told me to tell you that this next story was really important". Or chanting "Hell no we won't go!" while holding up a placard with the words "Bring our troops home!"

What about news with humor? You could have two news anchors bantering back and forth about the major stories of the day, sliding in jokes along with the stories.

Rick: "Mudslides in Mexico claimed the lives of thousands of people. When asked what it was like, one survivor exclaimed, "Dude, what a ride."
Wanda: "Pirate attack on a cruise liner off the coast of Somalia. No one was hurt and the attack was thwarted."
Rick:"That reminds me, Wanda, did you hear about the new sexy pirate movie coming out?"
Wanda: "No Rick, I haven't."
Rick: "It's rated AARRHH!!!"
Rick and Wanda: "Hahahah!"
Wanda: "Another beheading in Iraq. When confronted with his brutal savagery, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi angrily responded "What, do you have something about Arabs getting ahead?

Yea, as I think about it it would be funny... but not in a humorous way. Maybe we just better leave it to Jay Leno and Jon Stewart. At least we know they are telling jokes not reporting.

Ssmmookkiinn''

There are times when I feel I'm observing insanity. Tonight I watched a touching commercial about quitting smoking and that there are no safe cigarettes. The sponsor of the ad is revealed to be Phillip Morris, the maker of tobacco products. The message of this ad is quite simple: Please let us help you stop using our product. It will hurt you!

Huh?

I realize that this is punishment of cigarette manufacturers for putting addictive qualities in their cigarettes to hook the young into becoming loyal customers. Their penalty has been to convince people not to use their product.

At the same time we are pummeled on a daily basis from advertisers obsessed with convincing us that we need far more than we do. When we go to the store we purchase much more than we need. One could say that in this country we are addicted to accumulating. We have the majority of the world's wealth and we could live with far less that we do, yet advertisers have convinced us that we need more, more, more!

So the question I have is this: what if other companies were made to do what the cigarette have to do? After all our lust to consume more looks pretty addictive in this country. (If you don't believe me, Christmas is coming!)

"Hi, welcome to Penney’s. I would like to introduce you to Martha, your personal shopping assistant. She is a free service that we provide you to help you make responsible merchandise choices. She will accompany you to assist you in deciding whether the purchases you are thinking about, make sense, or if you are driven by the advertisement soaked belief that you need any given item."

Not only have we provided personal shopping assistants, but also all impulse items will be pulled from around the registers, eliminating the last minute purchase of items your children are screaming that they can't live without ( Consumers in training). As a courtesy we will have trained shopping counselors in each department to help you decided whether what you purchasing is driven by impulse or by need.

Something tells me that if this is what businesses would have to deal with in this country, it may be cheaper to do business in another country. Then all the money we can't spend because we don't have the stores around anymore could be sent to other countries so they could afford this newfound obsession of theirs.

Modesty

Janet Jackson has gotten nailed...well, not literally. She was soaking up the sun in the buff unaware of a camera clutching story hound filming her sunbathing escapade. It has gotten to the internet and Janet says she's distressed and embarrassed. Janet has asked them to stop in the name of decency. Oh my!

This from the garment malfunctioning superbowl diva. I'm sure a lot more people got a shot at a part of her body that should have stayed covered up, at least for live TV, than are going to see her latest video.

Janet, I'm sure you wanted me watching your act at the Superbowl. But what do I tell my daughter? Do I tell her that modesty means that it's okay for my daughter to expose herself in public only if she has control? If truth be told, I didn't see your breast during the superbowl half time show, because I had taken my daughter out of the room. I was already offended by the inappropriate messages flowing across the airways before you even got to the stage. So I missed the whole debacle. Let me guess, at the Superbowl, exposure is art and shouldn't be censored, in the back yard it's insensitive and heartless. Your neighbors must love you!

Don't worry Jan, I'll turn my back while you get dressed, and I promise not to peek!