January 2004 - Year Of The Borg
 RayzRealm (c) January, 2004

[Jan 01][Jan 04][Jan 10][Jan 18]
[Jan 24][Jan 31]

Thursday January 1

I was in bed by 9PM last night...yawn! I knew pretty
Screen shot from the simpsons Treehouse of Horror VII
Bush's true identity revealed
All Hail, President Kang
much that there would be no terrorist attacks or international mayhem last night. The BFEE loves yanking the collective American chain to keep them in line by either claiming some hollow victory or raising the terror alert level a notch or two. Just because foreign radicals are not white and are not from old Wasp bloodlines does not mean they are stupid. If there is another 9-11, they'll probably hit us when we least expect it, or worse the BFEE will fabricate one in time for the 2004 elections. In any event, the only thing that shook me awake, was a lot of hooting and hollering from the house next door. I looked at the clock on my night table 12:00; happy new year, now pipe down over there!

As I mentioned in the end of December log,
Borg vote republican
Bush Cheney in 2004
Resistance is futile,
all will be assimilated
this is also an election year; I almost dread the thought of it. My gut tells me that WWF Smackdown will seem more civilized than the debates and conventions. The Democratic (pink tutu) national convention is on Boston this year. I still have the feeling the repugnicans will try to stage some sort of attack or instigate trouble in Beantown during the election; what a bunch of rich arrogant thugs. There's an ancient Chinese curse, "May you live in interesting times". I think we're in for some very interesting times indeed. Fasten your seat belts, and place your trays in the full upright position, we're in for a long bumpy ride.

Well anyway, I woke up at 5 this morning, the sun came up in the East, the coffee maker worked and the Internet was still there, so I knew that the world had not changed much since last night (or year). New Years morning is a lot like Christmas morning, the air is still, the neighborhood so quiet, you could hear a fart from the bathroom next door.

Boston supposedly had record breaking crowds for First Night this year. This old curmudgeon avoids crowds these days,. I don't enjoy being among hundreds of thousands of liquored up, yelling people, pushing and shoving, waiting in lines, just to see a few fireworks at midnight and be able to say I was there.

The last time I even bothered to stay up to see the new year in was 4 years ago for the turn of the new millennium, sitting by my late friend and companion Paul's bed side to watch the world greet another 1000 years on TV while his family visited his sister's. Paul passed away 2 months later from cancer. Since then, I've usually been fast asleep by 10PM on New Years eve.

I took a ride into Boston, and was able to easily find a parking spot, considering how many people come to stay overnight for the festivities. For most of the retail stores, it was business as usual today. After coffee at Au Bon Pain I got lost in Barnes and Noble for a couple of hours.

Here's a little observation for ya. I think it began with the yuppie breeding craze, about the same time Benz's Beemers, and Volvo's began displaying those obnoxious yellow "Baby On Board" diamonds in their rear windows.....so what! you had a baby! big deal! billions and billions of babies came before yours, and with any luck there will be billions more. Around the same time yuppies announced to the world that they were transporting an offspring (like a truck hauling explosives or hazardous waste) most public restrooms (both mens and womens) began putting in "Baby Changing Stations". This reminds me of an earlier era in our nation's history, when the restless unwashed masses began pushing West.

They had stops to exchange tired horses for fresh ones. This gave me an idea for baby changing stations. When Biff and Buffie cart along little Pugsley on a Saturday shopping trip to Newbury Street, and if little Pugsley gets tied and cranky or has poopy diaper, they can exchange him for a fresh, rested baby before they venture on to Felcher and Buttblast and all the other prestigious up scale shops. On the way home they can drop off the now pooped out and whining replacement baby for their little cherub, who has had a nap and diaper change. I'm surprised that yuppies have not demanded toilets like I saw in Japan for the finer establishments they patronize. These loo's were high tech marvels; music and scents drown out the nasty noises smells of waste disposal. When you're done doing your business jets of warm water wash your bottom clean, then a gentle blast of warm air dries your bum, "DING! you can get up now!" Just like driving through a car wash.

All of the decent eateries had long waiting lines. I had not eaten at Chili's for quite a while, and since there was no wait, got a table and had Chicken Fried Chicken, which wasn't too bad. I suppose in the world of big chain restaurants, Chili's is better than a lot of them. The other one that's not half bad is The Olive Garden, but they're much scarcer than Chili's.

Only one official vacation day left. Whether I do anything or note, vacation always seems to fly by too fast.

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Sunday January 4

What have I done with the rest of my vacation? Absolutely nothing! it's been cold and drizzly for the past couple of days, and I only ventured out to grab a bite to eat, then back home to veg out and suckle from the glass teat or surf the web.

Saturday I took a ride into Boston to walk around in the rain (of course bringing an umbrella). I had lunch at the Living Center and chatted with one of the volunteers, who came to sit at my table. He said he also had a quiet New Years Eve and watched it all on TV. After lunch hopped the Orange Line to Downtown Crossing to window shop, making my way down toward the South Station at the edge of Chinatown, a place I've only wandered around once in the past. There were a few interesting shops, but a lot was closed. During the week, this area bustles with activity, but on weekends it's almost spooky, like a ghost town, or maybe it was just the weather.

I began making my way back toward my car, which was parked in the South End, and stopped at what I thought was a leather shop (at least it was 15 years ago). My my, surprise surprise, it's now a sexual fetish shop, that seemed to have a lot of latex items...hmmm! I went in anyway. As perceptive as I usually am, there are times when a nuclear device could go off right in front of me and I wouldn't see it. it finally sank in that all of the rubber clothing items were for women, and there were lots of whips and other sexual bric-a-brac. Then a dim bulb came on, I was the only male in the store and began to feel very naked. Perhaps the women thought I was shopping for a gist for my favorite dominatrix, they gave me a curious look, then went back to their chatter.

You may be asking, were there a row of Harley's parked out front? Nope, no hogs, and no burley tattoo'd women with mohawks smoking cigars. They all appeared to a be a gaggle of "Buffy The Male Slayer" soccer mom types with whiney nasal Valley Girl voices. Hmmm, so this is the secret life of the suburban yuppie soccer mom. There was a rather interesting item hanging on one of the racks, latex briefs with an enormous black rubber manhood facsimile attached (in other words a giant horn dagger, or as I've heard it referred to, a "strap on tool"). The thing was as long and as big around as my forearm. I wonder who the lucky recipient of such a marvel might be, hubby? each other? You could drill for oil with an appendage like that, or make a Soprano out of somebody.

I quietly slipped out the door, there was nothing for me in there, not today anyway. I stopped in a small store front book shop to get out of the rain to browse until the rain slowed down, then made it back to my car.

Today I made the usual trip into Harvard Square to relax before returning to work tomorrow. In a way I almost look forward to returning to all the stress and mayhem, and I know there will be a mountain of things to get caught up on.

I talked to Doug and his roommate in Chicago for quite a while, then called Noel and talked for another 45 minutes from a remote corner of the Holyoke Center concourse. The place was totally deserted, plus I do not like talking on a cell phone in public. Yes believe it or not, I do not like annoying others, unlike may cell phone zombies.

Speaking of cell phone zombies I was in a cafe having coffee today, sitting at a table next to a smug, turned up nose Buffy type, who was rappa-tapping away on her Powerbook while talking to what I would think was a girl friend. I wish I could have taped the conversation, at least the half that I heard. It's difficult not being able to hear yuppie broads on their cell phones, since most I hear talking have shrill whining voices, trying to be articulate. The sound is like long fingernails on a black board to my ears. I remember the conversation almost verbatim; it was priceless and could be packaged and sold as a porno "books on tape" I've inserted (pause" in places where princess precious was listening

"So he did wind up calling you. Did you go out with him finally?"

(pause)

"Did you fuck him?"

(longer pause)

"Wow, really! He FUCKED you for 5 hours straight! Did he have a big cock?"

(long pause)

"You're kidding, over 9 inches!...you couldn't even get your hand around it. I'll bet you choked on that huh?"

(long pause)

"You pig! Did he have a nice body, butt?"

(pause)

"He's a personal trainer? Sounds r-e-a-l-l-y nice. And he could go all night?"

(pause)

"I'm getting horny just hearing about it. Are you going to see him again I hope?"

(pause)

"Well don't let that one get away. If it doesn't work out, give him my number. Does he have any single friends?"

(pause)

"Did you use any protection?"

(pause)

"He wasn't gay or anything?"

(pause)

"That's good, you should be all right then. He was probably disease free.You can never tell though, so many guys swing both ways now. I will not sleep with a guy who sleeps with men too. I don't need any diseases, ya know!"

(((editorial comment here: silly tart, it doesn't matter if the guy boinks with other guys or not. You pays your fare, you takes your chances)))

(pause

"Oh ok, you have a call on an other line. I have to run anyway. Tell me more later. I really need to get laid bad. Most of the guys I meet are total losers, not worth fucking, let alone having dinner with."

Well, there it is for your carnal enjoyment. I don't usually take note of phone conversations of others, but she was difficult not to overhear. I don't know if she thought she was the only person in the crowded cafe, but I know others heard her. After she got up and left, a guy across from me who was reading the paper, gave me a raised eyebrow grin, and shook his hand in a "whew that was hot" gesture. He watched her walk down the street until she was out of sight, then went back to reading his paper. Ahhh, to be a fly (or homeland security spy) on the wall last night.

After coffee I had a late lunch, then it was time to come back home to vacation debrief before returning to work tomorrow. It's pouring out and nasty again. I'll close today with something I got via e-mail.

I received the following in the mail a few days ago, humorous, but true. Do I smell just a hint of hypocrisy

Rules for being a Republican

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Saturday January 10

The outdoor thermometer read -5 when I got up this morning, and didn't get out of the single digits all day. Taxachusettes went from a balmy 40's a week ago to the Arctic Circle in less than a week. I suppose it is Winter, and on a positive note, I noticed that the sun is setting a bit later now than it was a few weeks ago. At some point Spring may return!

As cold as it was I decided to trek into Boston, all bundles up in my new snorkel jacket, heavy sweater, hat and gloves. With the hood all sipped up, I must have looked like Kenny from "South Park". According to the weather man, it is supposed to hit 20 below or more with the wind chill factor. Most of me kept warm but my noogies were aching and climbing up into my body to escape the cold.

I stopped for lunch at the Living Center, then walked through Copley Place and the Pru Plaza and finished my (out with the old, in with the new sweater purchases. I picked up another 4 really nice heavy washable sweaters at the Gap and Express for $15 each, considering when the Fall season arrived they were selling for $50. The stores still probably make a healthy margin at the deeply discounted sale prices.

It's time for a geography lesson. The tags on all my Winter purchases this year say Made in; China, Taiwan, Honduras, Guatemala, Bangladesh, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore. What's wrong with this picture? Not one single item says made in the good ole US of A, not even Levis any more. At the rate things are going, "nothing at all will be made or done in the USA, not even computer coding, accounting or clerical work.

Here's a scene from the checkout line in an American supermarket of the future.

"That will be $259.87 Ma'am, paper or plastic?"

"Plastic is fine, but where did my groceries go?"

"Oh, they're being sent off to Honduras for bagging. Here's you grocery claim check, you can pick up your order at Logan Airport in 5 working days."

"WHAT!"

"I'm sorry Ma'am, but the store chain made a management decision where they save .00015 cent on every order bagged by not hiring bag boys at minimum wage. People in Honduras are willing to bag groceries for 10 cents a day on 14 hour shifts, but they might pilfer and eat part of your groceries, so hold on to your register tape when you claim your order to make sure it's complete."

"But I'm having guests over for dinner tonight. What do I do in the mean time?"

"Uhh well, uhh, I'm sorry Ma'am, you can call the corporate offices of our parent company, Hyper, Mega Global Marts Unlimited at the 800 number on your register receipt if you wish to file a complaint."

Well anyway I got some super deals. The snorkel jacket I picked up at the Gap on Sale for $49.95 (marked down from $129) a few weeks ago was now priced at $34.95. Well Spring is coming, along with Valentines Day and Easter, which stores have already begun to promote. Geeeze, the beginning of Lent is more than a month away, and Easter isn't until the 40 days of Lent are over.

It was too cold to wander around town so headed home early. Why is it that it's always some bozo driving a land yacht or titanic SUV, that decides at the last minute that he/she wants to make a left hand turn on a four lane road from the right most lane, cutting off all traffic as they proclaim their importance, "make way, I'm driving a $90,000 Titanic SUV, submit to my random whim or die."

There are a number of unwritten rules of the road in Massachusetts that you won't find in the Registry of Motor Vehicles manual.

Hand signals: The only hand signal you need to show is the extended middle finger.

When to use it: Any time another driver honks their horn at you, cuts you off, yells at you for pulling a bonehead maneuver, waves at you, whenever you damn well feel like flipping it.

Turn signals: Totally unnecessary automotive accessory. Turn signals are for sissies and timid people who require training wheels.

Essential parts of car are...

Gas pedal: Makes it go.

Horn: Makes other people go.

Most importantly: location of cup holders and auxiliary power outlets (for fax computer, cell and other essential on the road activities), location and operation car radio and automotive home theater system, location of climate controls hear, A/C (DeLuxe versions that include seat warmer, hand warmer, ball and bum scratcher, tampon remover), family gun in glove compartment or under seat for protection from other drivers.

And now for a science lesson, Bigboote's First Law of Commercial Inertia

The more annoying a jingle, theme song or visual image is, the deeper it will embed itself in your sub conscious. The most annoying jingles and songs seem to play themselves over and over in your head.

That's about it for today. Here are a handful of post holiday news markdown sale items for your enjoyment, irritation or angst...whatever!

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Sunday January 18

We've been in a deep freeze most of this week, single numbers at best, well below zero at night. The Southern neocons have probably ordered the military to aim their weather machinery at the Northeast to teach us "Damn Yankees" a lesson. The money I spent on a new Winter jacket and sweaters has proved to be money well spent!

I had a doctor's appointment this week, to review quarterly labs and go over abdominal CT scan results. Of course everything came back perfectly normal, which still does not explain the chronic urinary tract infection I've had since last July that's kept me feeling miserable. Trouble is, my doctor knows it's some sort of low grade chronic infection, but all lab tests come back negative, except for an elevated white count. He's been monitoring my immune functions, which have sprung a slow leak under the strain of the continuing infection. I hope they can solve this soon, or else I'll be tempted to take a ride out to the nearest nuclear testing range, pull down my pants and stand at ground zero.

Aside from work, all that I've been doing is vegging out, and making some fine tuning to Area51. There is still a minor JavaScript error that rarely appears, and only when I access my site from work. I still have 19th century dial up access from home (never get the error), and T10 connection at work, so I suspect it's a page load, timing problem.

Saturday: Compared to the past week, today almost felt like Spring. The mercury climbed into the low 30's, compared with 12 below (40 below with wind chill) yesterday. I took the usual ride into Boston this morning (yadda yadda blah blah). The Living Center was closed in honor of Martin Luther King day, so I had lunch at Chili's, then wandered around in Barnes and Noble for a couple of hours.

I was browsing through the periodical section, thumbing through Adbusters when the cover of Popular Mechanics caught my eye, so I picked it up. The cover art work was a scene of a giant UFO landing on the White House lawn, "What will you do when the aliens land? The government already has secret detailed plans in place." I've sort of known this for years, that in some little known department, men and women have probably worked out various scenarios, just in case. As I read through the article, there was mention of the gummint assuming the aliens (if they exist and/or decide to drop by) should be considered "armed and extremely dangerous." Ahh, human nature, what isn't understood, or seems strange should automatically be assumed to be hostile. I've seen too many proclamations in my life time of alleged absolute truths; "anyone can grow up to be president","HIV causes AIDS", "Italians are all involved in organized crime","blacks are all lazy criminals","blacks are an inferior race","Jews are all money snatching bastards who would steal the pennies out of your loafers","every disease or condition is caused by some germ","we're all slaves to our genes","all homosexuals are child molesters who recruit children into their ranks","all homosexuals want to be women","all lesbians want to be men","my country right or wrong","police are your friends and never do wrong","the president and those in power are honest men of integrity who can be trusted","the speed of light cannot be exceeded", etc, etc, yadda, yadda and so on.

If "BIG IF" aliens do exist and possess the technology to span planets and galaxies, as easily as we span the distance from our homes to Wal-Mart in our land speeders, then they must be light years ahead of us technologically. If they are that advanced, they must also possess some mighty envious weapons of mass destruction, that would have the Joint Chiefs and Washington salivating like hungry dogs, or pre schoolers let loose in a Toys r Us store. So we must assume they are like the nasty aliens in the movie "Independence Day". In most of our science fiction movies the aliens usually arrive, angry and passed off with a planet sized chip on their shoulders.

The intentions of the aliens in "Independence Day" were pretty clear; no political double speak or false promises, no hidden agendas like in plots such as the Twilight Zone's, "To Serve Man". They made their intentions pretty clear, blow up our cities and kill as many humans as possible in the shortest time. When the President of the United States met the alien captive, the alien put a telepathic whammy on the Prez.Our leader asked the tentacled visitor, "what do you want us to do?" The alien's reply was to the point, "TO DIE!" You can't get much clearer than that, "curl up and die! get out of my face!"

So if they are that far advanced, they have probably been monitoring our broadcast transmissions; I Love Lucy, All In The Family, FOX News, Rush Limbaugh, Saturday Night Live, MAD TV, Fear Factor, Survivor, Who Wants to Marry a...., Will and Grace, WWF Smackdown, NYPD Blue, The Simpsons, X-Files, Super Bowl, World Series, Presidential debates, 7 o'clock news, along with all the rest of our EM pollution; Yup we have to wipe out these earthlings before they spread like a disease. If the aliens ever do decide to visit, they will either come armed to the teeth or are more foolish than humans. Who with half a brain would decide to set up a plantation on this looney bin of a rock.

Part of the article talked about how the gummint would deal with people who saw or came in contact with aliens or their craft; detention, quarantine, etc. You can't be too careful, the aliens might have cooties. Well if they do show up, I'll run over to the local bakery to pick up some nice Danish and put a fresh pot of coffee on. I'll put out a couple of ash trays in case they're smokers. I just hope the aliens are not Republican.

Lemmee see; Bush now wants to go to the Moon and Mars. I doubt there's any oil there, so that can't be a motive, unless Osama has established an Al Qaeda training camp on Mars. Why does Bush want to blow a few hundred billion (trillion) more on neocon pipe dreams of conquest.....unless they know something we don't about that rust bucket of a planet. If I were a self respecting alien from Omicron 7, I'd be lobbying to have vast armada go out and kick Earth's ass and take names before they spread humanity's own brand of lunacy throughout the universe, "keep Starbucks and Wal-Mart from opening on Orion Alpha 12A, and just say NO to FOX affiliates broadcasting from Uranus."

Here is this week's Nor'easter worth of news articles and journals that blew in during the daily Area51 Department of Homelyland Insecurity surveillance.

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Saturday January 24

For the handful or regular visitors, sorry for any inconvenience or confusion. I have made yet another page change doing away with the default Area51 greeting page and consolidating it with the Main Index page. I've been meaning to get rid of the greeting page for some time now. I few visitors to my site thought that the greeting page was my entire site. They never thought to scroll down and click on the entry link to the main index, even though there is a clear message saying to scroll down to bottom of page to enter Bigboote's Area51. As I suspected, a lot of people don't read any more. Well anyway, it's done!

I took a ride into Boston this morning for the usual coffee and book browse, then had lunch at the Living Center. I sat at a table with a bunch of people discussing the train wreck that the Bush administration has made of America and what a sewer the mass media is, especially network teevee.. Of course none of these people are millionaire yuppies and find their wealth, pretentiousness and arrogance as annoying as I do. I suppose the rich find us rag muffin poor folk to be equally distasteful, but at least we're real people.

After lunch the neuropathy in my feet and aching in my pelvis from the "still there" urinary infection kept me from spending the rest of the day in town, and anyway it was bitterly cold and windy.

I stopped by Micro Center on the way home and got absorbed playing a game they had set up on a display home brew gaming machine that was housed in a clear acrylic tower case. That sucker had more heat sinks and cooling fans in it than a nuclear power plant, probably to keep the 256 meg video card and CPU chip from melting down. I was having fun shooting aliens and blowing up things. The sound system with sub-woofer added to the fun. Ahh, that's what I need to buy, a shooting and blowing up things game to relieve some of my stress.

I have suspected that there was some sort of tracking, scumware or spy ware running on my machine that Norton and Adaware didn't catch since XP has popped up warnings that my system resources were being sucked up by tracking software. I also noticed that pages loaded dirt slow on the web and forget about downloading anything. I could have open heart surgery, get my oil changed and a 1 meg file would still be downloading. I like shopping at Micro Center, the people there are knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the devil's favorite technology. I got into a lengthy chat with a sales person who highly reccommended "Spy Sweeper" and also a firewall program, so I picked up a copy of Spy Sweeper and Black Ice.

I installed and registered "Spy Sweeper", then ran my fist scan, which uncovered and nuked 9 separate scumware programs. My system seems a lot more frisky now, and with anti virus, a firewall and scumware blocking software running, my PC should be almost as secure as the US of A under the Homeland Security Act.

I fess up, I didn't watch Dubya's "Fate of the Union" address. Reality TV (which is anything but reality) is bad enough, but watching that ventriloquist's dummy move his lips while his nose grows would have just raised hives. I've pretty much (long ago) realized that every word out of his mouth is a lie, and what's scary is the lies are getting so brazen and ridiculous, and nobody seems to notice or care.

Anyway, here's this week's roundup of undocumented, illegal articles and journals rounded up during my daily news runs,

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Saturday January 31

I thought that January would never end. It has been one of the coldest Januaries in over 100 years here, with very little sunlight. This makes me wonder if there is a section in hell where it's January in New England for all eternity.

I've been dreaming a lot this month, real creature triple features. I had one dream where I was visiting Noel and Ellen, when two flying saucers landed in their back yard and abducted me from right under their noses. I had two nuclear war dreams and one where my mother showed up leering at me wherever I went. The last was a bit more pleasant, I was watching TV and the news broke in with a special report. Bush and company were all being led out of the White House into waiting paddy wagons wearing orange jump suits. They were all handcuffed and shackled together. I couldn't quite hear what the news anchor was saying, but thought to myself, 'it's all finally caught up with them, good!'

My prayers go to John Kerry or whoever takes the lead against the BFEE. I have very little faith that anyone will be able to oust Bush, not even God.

Area51 continues to evolve, mutate and be tweaked. I've made and un-made about a dozen design modifications over the past week or two. At some point it will reach a point that I like, but for now, small changes are in process. At this point I'm doing it for my own amusement; it keeps me off the streets. This long cold Winter has kept me inside for the most part.

Why you need an SUV

I was looking at HDTV's last week at a couple of the big box stores. The prices are coming down but are still out of my reach. I would like maybe a 25" or 27" screen, but all of the sets I've seen so far are 32, 36, 42, 52, 72 inches. I know that 21st century Amerika is a land of McMansions and mammoth SUV's, so a 72 inch screen will be unobtrusive in the typical stadium size "great room" of the average McMansion. My 27" Sony Trinitron dominates an entire corner of my modest living room.

Another issue with the "big, bigger, biggest" is better trend are the boxes these monsters come in, plus you have to have 2 or 3 available friends to help you just lift the thing. You cannot fit one of these boxed up cineplex size TV's in the average sedan, you need an Army troop carrier to haul it home from the store. The boxes that some of these toys come packed in are larger than the entire living spaces in some of the world's poorest countries. I asked the sales drones in a couple of the stores if they knew of any HDTV's that had 25 to 27 inch screens, and was met with a blank look, "why bother! it lessens the entire home theater experience."

Then there are the surround sound amplifiers. I looked at a couple that claimed a total power output of between 700 and 900 watts. They were feather light "Made in Malaysia by Buddhist elves", and from my earlier years of amplifier design, based on the weight, power supply, output heat sinking, etc, the only way one of these gems could pump out close to a kilowatt of power is if it was hit by a direct lightning strike. If you read the poop sheet on these, a lot are rated at "instantaneous peak power". The only meaningful rating is an honest RMS power output, with low distortion, what can the amplifier continually deliver without breathing hard. I have an 18 year old Onkyo Integra integrated amp, with heavily filtered hefty dual power supplies and beefy output section rated at 125 watts per channel RMS, with almost non existent distortion. It's a beautifully built piece of equipment (actually made in Japan) and still sounds as good as the day I took it out of the box. Of course in my current apartment, I would never dream of cranking that baby up. They don't build'em like that any more unless you want to spend over a thousand bucks just for the amplifier.

I got into a conversation with one of the pimply faced sales drones in one of the big box stores about audio. He asked what sort of audio system I had and when I told him, he replied, "omigosh, that's ancient. Your system is way out of date and is not ready to handle 5 channel surround sound. I told the kid, the kind of movies I tend to watch are not filled with explosions, gun fire, rap music and screaming car chases. The same goes for cars with 1000 watt car audio systems. I'll be quietly sitting in my living room reading when the windows begin rattling and then I feel the approaching "boom! boom! boom!" that sounds like Godzilla running down the street in my gut. Oh, it's just some kid driving down the street listening to rap music on his car stereo. How can anyone concentrate on driving with 140 db bone rattling sound levels.

In Ending, this is why everyone should buy the biggest gas guzzling SUV they can, to cart home all of the neat big box super store stuff. Until I get with the program and dump my Corolla, I'll be forever condemned to only considering mini hand held TV sets for purchase, due to cargo carrying limitations.

This concludes the January Flight Recorder. Here are some articles and journals from this week's web wanderings.

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Shalom, Ray