Domestic Geek

Some friends of mine were playing a silly little game in Unix class last week. It's called XBill and the object of the game is to kill all the little Bill Gates and keep the Windows OS from taking over your network. I downloaded it onto the old laptop today. I got a lot farther with my graphire pen than I did with the stupid touchpad. I suppose it could becoming very boring quickly, but hey, it was kind of fun. There is even a Palm version that Marcus downloaded. Cool.

Another wonderful email from Reverie:

The gentleman who wrote this, Rob Suggs, is a children's author and illustrator. He works a lot with the children at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta. He is able to "lighten their load" through his art and story telling therapy...he's a wonderful guy.

The children obviously are asking questions about the dire circumstances we are in, as well as the adults. This is what he has written to further explain the situation to the children he is working with in the hospitals...adapted from a classic story "How the Grinch Stole Christmas".

The Binch
By: Rob Suggs
Date: September 13, 2001

Every U down in Uville liked U.S. a lot,
But the Binch, who lived Far East of Uville, did not.
The Binch hated U.S! the whole U.S. way!
Now don't ask me why, for nobody can say,
It could be his turban was screwed on too tight.
Or the sun from the desert had beaten too bright
But I think that the most likely reason of all
May have been that his heart was two sizes too small.

But, Whatever the reason, his heart or his turban,
He stood facing Uville, the part that was urban.
"They're doing their business," he snarled from his perch.
"They're raising their families! They're going to church!
They're leading the world, and their empire is thriving,
I MUST keep the S's and U's from surviving!"

Tomorrow, he knew, all the U's and the S's,
Would put on their pants and their shirts and their dresses,
They'd go to their offices, playgrounds and schools,
And abide by their U and S values and rules,
And then they'd do something he liked least of all,
Every U down in U-ville, the tall and the small,
Would stand all united, each U and each S,
And they'd sing Uville's anthem, "God bless us! God bless!"
All around their Twin Towers of Uville, they'd stand,
and their voices would drown every sound in the land.

"I must stop that singing," Binch said with a smirk,
And he had an idea-an idea that might work!
The Binch stole some U airplanes in U morning hours,
And crashed them right into the Uville Twin Towers.
"They'll wake to disaster!" he snickered, so sour,
"And how can they sing when they can't find a tower?"
The Binch cocked his ear as they woke from their sleeping,
All set to enjoy their U-wailing and weeping,
Instead he heard something that started quite low,
And it built up quite slow, but it started to grow-

And the Binch heard the most unpredictable thing...
And he couldn't believe it-they started to sing!
He stared down at U-ville, not trusting his eyes,
What he saw was a shocking, disgusting surprise!
Every U down in U-ville, the tall and the small,
Was singing! Without any towers at all!
He HADN'T stopped U-Ville from singing! It sung!
For down deep in the hearts of the old and the young,
Those Twin Towers were standing, called Hope and called Pride,
And you can't smash the towers we hold deep inside.

So we circle the sites where our heroes did fall,
With a hand in each hand of the tall and the small,
And we mourn for our losses while knowing we'll cope,
For we still have inside that U-Pride and U-Hope.
For America means a bit more than tall towers,
It means more than wealth or political powers,
It's more than our enemies ever could guess,
So may God bless America! Bless us! God bless!

Quote from this week's paystub:
"The shortest distance between two points is always under construction."
--Noelie Alito

I recently got the following email from my friend Reverie:

MAKING SENSE OF EVIL FOR A 5-YEAR-OLD

You know how you feel when you are having a nightmare?
GTA bureau chief Laurie Monsebraaten's 5-year-old son Gavin turned on the television to watch "Arthur" and "Magic School Bus" yesterday morning. Instead, he was met by the grave faces of TV news reporters describing the devastation in New York and Washington. "Mommy, a plane crashed into a building,'' he told his mother quietly. "Why did that plane crash into the building?''

Dear Gavin,

No matter what you hear, this is not the end of the world.
But this week, our world changed forever.
And many people are very upset, scared, sad and angry.
It's all very hard to explain. Nobody really knows how it happened, not even the president of the United States.
But this is our best guess.
On Tuesday morning, some very evil people pretending to be passengers barged into the cockpits of four airplanes and took over the controls.
They flew two of the planes into the two tallest buildings in New York City, sending them both crashing to the ground.
They flew another plane into a building in Washington called The Pentagon. That's the military headquarters for the entire United States.
They flew the last plane into a field near a place called Pittsburgh. We think that plane was also supposed to hit a building, but something stopped it.
Nothing like this has ever happened before anywhere in the world.
Everybody is in shock.
Many, many people were killed and hurt - mommies and daddies, aunts and uncles, sisters and brothers, and grown-up sons and daughters.
Maybe as many people as you sat with in the Skydome when you went to the baseball game with daddy last spring.
So many people were hurt and killed in such a short time. it's very hard for people to understand.
You know how you feel when you are having a nightmare? That's how most people are feeling today. except it's not a nightmare. it's real.
And that's why our world has changed.
Nobody wants something like this to happen again. but nobody knows how good people in the world are going to stop such evil. And that's why everyone is frightened.
The people who did this are called terrorists. That's because they do things that terrify us and don't care if they die while they hurt others.
Some of the people who did this died in the crashes, but others who helped them are still alive and could do something like this again.
The police and the military are trying to find out who they are and when they know, they will try to stop them.
In the meantime, there are hundreds of real-life rescue heroes just like on TV who are working around the clock to help people who are still alive and trapped in the rubble of the buildings that were attacked.
They are brave police officers, firefighters, paramedics, nurses and doctors, and they are doing their very best.
If they get tired, firefighters and ambulance crews from Toronto and many other places are ready to go and help.
We can help, too.
We can pray for those who were hurt and killed and for their families and friends. We can pray for the people who are risking their safety to find survivors and we can pray that the world finds a way to stop terrorists.
We can try to be a good person. To be kind. To think about other people.
Unfortunately, the most difficult question to answer is why this happened.
And mommy doesn't know.

Love, Mommy

Two more days of school left!. They are going to be offering the Cisco class next module. The teacher who will be teaching it is an OK teacher. Will it be worth it to try and take it? At least I know he won't up and walk out on us. Will I get anything out of it? I don't know. I'm torn. I'm so frustrated. Should I just try and learn it on my own? I know I need to find a new job because those idiots at work are driving me nuts. Of course, now I'm worried about finding work and keeping a new job with all the uncertainty in the job market and the instability of our world.

I've been having bad dreams lately. I'm sure they are probably stirred by all the bad stuff happening lately. They are not dreams about what has happened, but bad nonetheless. It's not like I have any stress in my life or anything. Ha!

On top of everything else, I have no heater in my car! I don't need more repair bills. ARGH! It'll go into the shop again on Friday. I can't wait to see how much that is going to cost.