***

29sep2001 - Yesterday we motored down to San Diego, about an hour south of where we live in Laguna, to catch Al Jarreau in concert at Humphrey's-by-the-Bay. About half way thru the show, he broke into his own soulful rendition of God Bless America. 

First one person stood up & put their hand over their heart. Then another & another. Next thing you know everybody stood up and began signing along. People starting crying.

Only minutes before, everyone seemed happy & was having a great time. It's obvious that there's a lot of pent up emotion over the terrorist attacks in NYC & DC, even 3000 miles away here on the West Coast.

Humphrey's in the best place I know of to see a concert. This link here will show you why. 

***

28sep2001 - Boxing fans should be aware that a Middleweight title match is scheduled for tomorrow evening. Felix 'Tito' Trinidad will face Bernard 'The Executioner' Hopkins (39-2-1, 28 KO's) at Madison Square Garden in NYC. It's being billed as the best non-heavyweight title match in the last decade. 

The fight was originally scheduled for the weekend following the WTC attacks. More info here and here. Hopkins is the defending champ, but Trinidad, from Puerto Rico, with a flawless 40-0 record, is a 3-to-1 favorite. 

The two fighters are ranked numbers 2 & 3 as the best pound-for-pound fighters in the world today, so there promises to be plenty of talent on display. The winner will hold the first unified Middleweight title since Marvelous Marvin Hagler held it 14 years ago.

I've never seen Hopkins fight, but Tito is impressive, with a vicious left hook. He's willing to do whatever it takes to win, even fight dirty. These guys do not like each other.  

***

27sep2001 - Here on the West Coast, in Southern California, 3000 miles from the still-smoldering carnage of NYC & DC, we're somewhat removed from the crisis. But the attacks still had a major psychological impact.

The #1 thing people want here is no more attacks. Even more than killing Osama bin Laden, people want freedom from further attacks. In other words, we'd rather leave bin Laden be if we could be assured that there would be no more attacks .. rather than take him out & continue suffering terrorist attacks. 

We can't undo what has already happened, so we should focus on preventing a recurrence. It does no good if we take him out & lose the country doing it. 

To put it still another way: military retaliation in the Afghanistan is not our #1 priority. Most agree that killing bin Laden will not eliminate the threat of more attacks. In fact, it may even exasperate the situation. I still feel we should go after him, but I think there are more important things that need our attention.

Sadly, most experts feel that, either way, further attacks are inevitable .. which leads to my next point: preparation. 

If a free society like ours can't prevent terrorist attacks from occurring, then, far as humanly possible, we need to be prepared for them when they come. From what I've read, the nation is woefully unprepared for future terrorist attacks, with several long-term studies all coming to the same conclusion. 

Our family is planning to purchase a supply a gas masks - the good ones. Like insurance policies, hopefully we'll never need them. But if we see a crop-duster swing low over Los Angeles, spewing a chromatic mist ...

***

We'd also like to see some kind of government plan. I know they don't want to appear alarmist right now. But better a prepared alarmist than a dead denialist. The innocence is gone. Our heads are out of the sand. We can stomach whatever scenarios they might want to prepare us for. 

We promise not to freak out if a gas mask & bright orange bio suit arrives on the front porch with my next phone book .. which leads to my next point.

The biggest fear comes from chemical & biological weapons. All this talk of hijacking crop-dusters is most unnerving. And if you shoot them out of the sky, you only do them a favor. Even more disturbing than ramming a Boeing 767 into the nuclear plant dome down the road, biological weapons represent the worst scenario most people can imagine. 

Coughing, gagging, spitting up blood, festering skin. It doesn't paint a pretty picture, and it no longer seems far fetched.

My Christian friends are convinced that the events of the last two weeks are a sign, confirming that were in what they call the last of the last days. The scenario unfolding in the world today plays right into their hand. 

Last night I heard a news commentator discussing how one solution to our free-society woes might be to give everyone some sort of national ID, that they would use to purchase airline tickets, hand guns & weapons, chemicals, whatever. 

My Christians friends claim that this sounds frighteningly similar to words found in the book of Revelation: 

"And he causes all, the small & great, rich & poor, free & slaves, to be given a mark, on their right hand, or on their forehead, that no one should be able to buy or sell, except who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name. Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for the number is that of a man: and his number is 666." 

I wonder if fingerprint scans or facial recognition scans fit into their mark of the beast scenario. I have researched what is commonly referred to as biometerics. The technology is interesting. If I have to go down and get fingerprinted, I'll ask to have my left hand done. =)

***

The biggest change between today and pre-911 is that people no longer take safety & security for granted. The illusion of invincibility was shattered. I can't imagine what it will be like for kids to grow up in today's world. I'm glad I grew during a time when things weren't so crazy. 

The ease with which a handful of terrorists were able to commandeer four jet liners was a huge wake up call - even for people who don't routinely fly the friendly skies. 

No one is going to be in any big hurry to set foot in another airport until inept, minimum-wage airport security is replaced with something more formidable. It's difficult to put your heart into your job for $7.00 an hour. 

There also won't be any rush to airports until cockpit doors are fortified, even if this means pilots enter thru an external door. Anything that makes the airliner less attractive to terrorists makes it more attractive to potential passengers.

Beyond getting folks to return to airports in droves, no one really expects the terrorists to repeat the same scenario. If they could outwit all of our security agencies, they're obviously more clever than that. More likely they'll attempt something we haven't yet thought of .. which leads to my next point.

We need smart people to anticipate their possible strategies and beat them to the punch. If we simply react to what they do, it's going to be a looong row to hoe. From what I've read, bin Laden telegraphed & announced each terrorist attack, and we *still* couldn't stop him. 

We need people that are able to think like a terrorist thinks, to get inside their heads, and to view the world thru terrorist-colored glasses .. which leads to my next point.

Despite what government officials say, nobody really believes that terrorists, and people around the globe, hate Americans because we live in a free society. I feel like my government isn't leveling with me when I hear them say that. Terrorists will gladly tell you why they hate us, and it ain't cuz we live in a free society. 

When bombs go off in their neighborhoods, where ever that might be, they read the letters Made in USA on the scattered fragments. I'm not judging whether bombing whoever we bomb is right or wrong, only that the reason for the attacks is not cuz we live in a free society. I would feel much better if our government officials leveled with us.

Terrorists also don't like us having a military presence in Saudi Arabia. Again, I'm not saying we shouldn't be there. I also think that their beef about us being in the so-called holy land is more about oil & less about anything religious. Sadaam invaded Kuwait for the oil, not the mosques.

They also don't like our foreign policy, and our support of Israel. Admittedly, I don't know enuf about the politics of the region to comment with authority. But I do know that they hate America more for the reasons I mentioned than for anything to do with our free society. Every time I hear a 'they hate our free society' speech, it makes me feel like I'm being manipulated. 

They attacks may result in a less-free society, but that's not the reason for them. Knowing human nature, I have a sneaking suspicion that, underneath it all, it's all about oil. 

Note that the fact that we send them millions of dollars worth of food & supplies every year apparently means very little to them.

Something is very wrong if they're missing stuff like that. Finding the bad guys after the fact is nice, but too late. If someone asked me to evaluate the recent performance of our national security agencies, I'd have to say: Unsat.

One thing that bothers me about bin Laden is how soft spoken he is. I've never seen him in a wild rage. He seems almost apologetic about wanting to destroy America. Not sure why that bothers me. I'd be more comfortable if he were a wild-eyed madman. The soft spoken terrorist does not compute.

24sep2001 - PGP, which stands for Pretty Good Privacy, is a freeware (for personal, non-profit use) program that will encrypt the emails you send & files of your choosing on your hard drive. If you're into James Bond, secret encoding stuff like me, you'll like this program. 

You'll first have to answer 'Yes' to four questions before they'll let you download the program. The program's author discusses PGP's cryptographic integrity here, where he refutes rumors of government back-doors. The international home page is posted here (Norway). 

PGP generates what they call a key-pair. The way it works: you give/send your public key to whoever you want to be able read your encrypted emails, and you keep the private key for yourself. Public key + private key = key pair. PGP claims over 40 million users.

During the set-up, the program will ask you for a code word of at least 8 characters, which should contains a combination of letters & numbers. This is the code that you'll use to unlock your encrypted files. They tell you not to write it down anywhere, but if you forget it, your screwed. So pick something you won't forget (or write it down).

The program is more involved than most. There is a good Help file, which can be accessed from the pad-lock icon that is installed to your system tray. There are also 3 pdf files listed under Documentation, which can be accessed from the Start menu -> Programs -> PGP. I've spent some time reading these documents during the last few days. Definitely Rad stuff.

For more info on other programs, see the guide to programs & applications.

***

23sep2001 - It's not possible to respond to each & every email I receive, but I do read them all. I have received plenty of suggestions, which I try to incorporate, but rarely anything I could characterize as a genuine complaint or critcism.

A web guru friend once reviewed my Accolades page and said, "These are great, but you'll never have a serious web site until you start getting serious criticism."

At the time, I wasn't interested in a serious web site, and I didn't entirely agree with him. But I still wanted some criticism, especially after reading Fravia's Critics page, where he says: ..awards are less important than critics, since you can better use the latter to ameliorate your work and develop. 

I got the following letter today. It could almost be called a criticism. You decide. See here:

***

Is this the Complaint Department?

It's ten aay-emmish (*1) on a perfectly overcast Solday, and my hunting peckers just can't seem to break away from the frickin' flypaper-ness of this beige-buttoned keyboard.

Poop. While your site's many-n-varied links are like candy-diabetic dichotomous, a quick look-seek failed to net a certain first name. ("To whom it may concern:" How unsatisfying.)

[Rad note - The problem is that there are cyber-weirdos out there, something I learned not long after first publishing the site. I don't mind receiving bizarre emails, but I don't want anyone calling the house, which I why I omit my real name. I'm sure someone could find it if they really wanted to, but I honestly don't think it would be worth the trouble. In other words, call me Rad.]

I prob'ly could've/should've gotten off this Radified thing and on with to-daze demands, and then you go ahead and schtick me with the one about the two black guys on the bridge [of The City of this boar's birth], which I *haven't* heard -- so trust I must.

[Rad note: It's only funny after two glasses of Chianti. I didn't think anyone would be interested or I would've included it. The photo should give you some clues.] 

And then you stick me again by dangling "Roadtrip" just out of sight. What's the deal?  Was *that* the whole idea in the first place?

[Rad note: Roadtrip was a short story by the Dog that he wrote for a Writing class at Stanford. It was based on a true story of how he helped a person for several months as part of an out-reach program .. who eventually killed himself. He invited the guy to live with him for a few months. Fascinating & tragic story, but the family somehow found the page and asked the Dog to have it removed, which I did. We never did figure out how they found it.] 

Exclamatory mouth-noise of frustration here. (One week, one day, eleven dollars and four-sixty-two shipping later, I'm still waiting.)

[Rad note: Clever reference to this page, which indicates he ordered Norton System Works Pro (which comes with Norton Ghost) from DirectDeals.]

In the face of all this high-level accomplishment stuff, here I am, a runty little blues-collared ex-shipyard-boilermaker of a procrastinator, sitting here, stuck fast, molasses-slow, trying way too hard to be just a little clever.

[Rad note: You're doing great. I'd hire you if I was hiring. I used to work with boilermarkers. They are fine, hard-working people.]

And it's just snot working. Nor me, neither. (Outside in Beater's trunk, one case of oil and eight brand-new disc-brake pads are rapidly growing old.)

I mean, what a pisser! You and your site seem to put it all together - clever, lucid, eclectic, intelligent & *thoughtful*. I'll bet you just whip this stuff out in minutes!

[Rad note: Sometimes yes, but mostly not. For me, it's a form of therapy. Freud discovered that expression can be therapeutic and even curative. It's cheaper than paying a shrink.]

And here's me: Self-inflicting over subjects, objects, singulars, plurals, usage, propriety et al, and wondering whether or not using *asterisk-brackets* is accepted accentuation?

I'm almost getting used to the fact that verb-ized nouns surround us like brown air. Exposure to the word "content" still makes me feel like I've been laying fiberglass insulation.

Enough of I. You? All seriousness aside.  It's time to get real.

Later,
/s/
Enzo

PS - Come up with an emoticonic equivalent of a red-slashed circle super'd over that [semi]colonic parenthetical thingie and I'll... I'll...I'll... Anything! Just ask.

PPS - Curse you and your cuticles, whatever your name is. Thanks to that link to domaindiscover, I'm now pooer [sic/k] by the electronic equivalent of one Ben Franklin.

[Rad note: This would imply that Enzo purchased a domain name. Congrats!]

*1 - I'm [getting] too olde for this kind of stuff.

In the sauna last night, sweaty guys discussed what the new world order meant to them. For example, no one plans to attend large sporting events, like a pro football game, where up to 100,000 people clustered together would make for a tempting terrorist target.

Others countered that, if terrorists wanted to maximize the body-count, they could have done much better than the WTC & the Pentagon. Some proposed that future terrorist targets could be predicted best by tracing the flow of money & arms to Israel. "Find the source," they say, "and you find a prime target." 

Most felt that facilities manufacturing military-type weapons will be choice terrorist targets. One guy mentioned how drug people typically have their own planes, that could be loaded with high-explosives & aimed almost anywhere. 

All agree that more attacks are inevitable and that nuclear plants are at risk. Attacks using biological weapons are most feared. One religious person said that this was a sign that we're in the last days.

***

17sep2001 - The US stock market opens today, after its longest closure since the Great Depression. Opportunistic friends claim they will be watching to take advantage of bargain prices if panic-selling sets in. Might be able to pick up quality stocks at discount prices. Talk about hard core capitalists ...