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Imagine a world designed by Kafka, Stalin, Orwell, Huxley, Sartre and the Marx Brothers...

Soon to be a Classic.

SitRep just ended. They still don't have a date for SitRep Live. Probably early to mid April. Awesome show tonight.

It amazes me sometimes that my father used to work THIRTY-SIX hour shifts. Not only that, but he had one of the most stressful jobs in the country. And he didn't get to take breaks or eat or anything. Crazy. I thought 24 hours straight was bad.

The Esportbike drive is going well. I think it's at $1400 or so right now. kman created this little graphic to update the total a few times a day. His goal is $2000 (He's not trying to make money, only build new servers and buy new software). Some guys gave $20-25 or more.

Maybe, just maybe, I spoke too soon. The new Time magazine has an article about how the government was worried that a *small* (many kilotons; about the size of the Hiroshima bomb they say) nuclear weapon would be detonated in New York City several weeks ago. Far from being a 1% chance, some members were actually convinced it was going to happen! They had 'exceptionally credible' information. The casualty estimates were around 100,000, with many many millions poisoned by radiation. New York City is the financial center of the world. If they came out and announced this, there would obviously be a mass exodus from the area. The economic impact on the world would be catastrophic. We'd have to come up with a new word besides 'tumble' for what the markets would do. It's safe to say this would be a life-changer even for those in this country who couldn't be bothered to care about the WTC attacks.

So they decided not to say anything. If the bomb didn't materialize, no harm would be done, the slow unsteady recovery would continue along. If they had sounded the dire warnings though, and no bomb had gone off, they'd have crippled the world for years and years to come. If a bomb HAD gone off, the death would be horrible. And the long-term effects on the city would be horrible. And the effect on the economies of the world would be worse by far. And if they had given the warning and the bomb had gone off?

I guess it came down to betting against it happening and not destroying the economy with warnings of an event that might not come to pass. What a decision to make!! If it happened, and you didn't tell the world, you'd have damned millions of people to death. If it didn't happen, and you DID tell the world, you'd have wrecked the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people all over the world. I still think the general warnings they release on us are laughable. I'd just like John Ashcroft to explain what steps a citizen takes in the morning when he hears on the news it's a 'terrorism alert' day.

I guess it hasn't really sunk in how atrociously VULNERABLE we are. Millions of people are being trained and taught (from birth) that the greatest good they can do in God's eyes is to kill as many Americans as possible. Meanwhile, weapons of mass destruction are being developed at a furious pace. We will be the luckiest people ever on the face of the earth if there isn't another catastrophe in the next decade.

By the way, wondering where the bomb went? Yah, you and the US government. They no longer believe that particular threat is imminent. Does make you think about the future though. Maybe even the present. And if 1.5 million Americans (and tens of thousands of people of other nationalities, let's face it) were killed, what would the US's response be? Let's hope we don't have to go down that road, because I'm reasonably sure it would involve a world war. My days would certainly be numbered.

Sheesh. On to something more... pleasant.

My next speech has to be 7 minutes (!) and has to be a persuasive argument. Ugh. Have to do it right after Spring Break, too. Need a bunch of sources, and, stupidly, only ONE can be web-based. I have a few ideas: drug decriminalization, socialized medicine, environmentalism... I could also team up with somebody to do a point-counterpoint debate. That would be fun, but hideously difficult and time-consuming to develop. As it is, this thing is going to take hours and hours and hours of research and creative writing and practice and soul-searching. I hate this class.

Also have a project for EnvSci. I have to go talk to some people at UNT about the water usage on campus. Write a paper. Design a big poster or presentation. Also have a project for Accounting. Not to mention studying for Calc, Accounting, and Comm tests and doing a bunch of Excel crap for Statistics.

Today after class (actually, during class) people were talking about what they're doing on Spring Break. Wow, these people are well off! No, seriously, there are alot of successful people (who actually WORK rather than just suck off Momma and Dadda's wallet) out there who don't get to do the kinds of things I heard. These people are going on cruises, visiting islands, heading to Europe, etc. I'm sure I'd have the same sentiment if they had a discussion about the types of cars they drive. Brand new BMWs? Probably.

One thing is clear. If (when?) and when (if?) I 'make it', I'm going to enjoy and appreciate what I have and what I've done far more than some over-priveleged kid who drives an '02 330Ci and jet sets in the Bahamas and hasn't worked a day or known what it's like to go without for years. At least I think I will. Maybe I'll just be bitter about the whole age thing.