Well... yes, and here we go again.

It's 7:24pm on Saturday 4th November, 2000. I woke up an hour ago after collapsing in exhaustion at 4am this morning. What was I doing up so late? Well, talking... but that's not the point. The point is that I'm pushing my body as far as I can. I don't think this is a good idea, seeing as I need my body to live. But it makes good sense right now, and that's reason enough.

I have an assembly to give on Thursday morning of next week. Or, to be more accurate, I have to give an assembly. I don't yet have a subject about which to assemble. I was going to rant about fascism and politics and voting. But this no longer interests me as much as it did a few weeks ago, when I offered to do the thing. So I'm a little stuck for what to talk about. If all else fails, I'll talk about tooth-paste. But I'd like something juicier. So, you know, if you have anything...

About the two-thumbed fist. It's part of a new stationery (for Outlook Express) I've made for composing e-mails. I've attached it if any of you want to use it. A request; if any of you bother to e-mail me in future, could you please use this stationery? The fist itself is located in some of my webspace, so it doesn't actually make your e-mails that much larger. And the white text on dark-blue background is much easier for me to read than black on white. Less glare and whatnot. And the text is (unlike most [self-coded] stationeries) resizable. So I can whack it all the way up to Largest, and not have to squint. I thank you.

Also, there's the kak. I e-mailed most of you about that a little while ago. And hopefully it didn't affect that many of you (you being wise people who actually have anti-virus software installed). However, if there are still any of you who haven't quite got rid of it yet, and keep getting told about cagoules, follow the instructions below, and all shall be well.

~

01) Go to Start, Find, Files or Folders...
02) Type *.hta in the Named: box and click Find Now

It should find at least two files, kak.hta and another one, with a bunch of letters and numbers, followed by the extension .hta, eg - C084F720.hta. It may find more than one, depending on how many Identities you have set up in Outlook Express.

03) Click one file and press CTRL+A
04) Right-click one file and select Delete
05) Click Yes
06) Select the Named: box again and type kak.htm (over *.hta) and click Find Now
07) When it finds the file, right-click it and select Delete
08) Click Yes
09) Select the Named: box again and type ae.kak (over kak.htm) and click Find Now
10) When it finds the file, double-click it (if it asks you what program to Open With, select NOTEPAD and click OK)
11) Go to Edit, Select All
12) Go to Edit, Copy
13) Go to File, Open...
14) Type c:\autoexec.bat in the File name: box and click Open
15) Go to Edit, Select All
16) Go to Edit, Paste
17) Go to File, Save
18) Go to File, Exit
19) (Back in the Find: window) right-click Ae.kak and select Delete
20) Click Yes
21) Go to File, Close

~

Let me know if that didn't work.

I got a sickening e-mail a few days back. Here's what it said:

~

Please read this letter - it may be a bit long, but so very important.... Thanks!!!


Subject: THIS COULD BE FOR ALL AGES....... THIS IS A LITTLE LONG BUT OH SO INTERESTING!! A GOOD THING TO PASS ONTO CHILDREN AND ADULTS AS WELL.

Shannon could hear the footsteps behind her as she walked toward home. The thought of being followed made her heart beat faster. "You're being silly," she told herself, "no one is following you." To be safe, she began to walk faster, but the footsteps kept up with her pace. She was afraid to look back and she was glad she was almost home. Shannon said a quick prayer, "God please get me home safe." She saw the porch light burning and ran the rest of the way to her house. Once inside, she leaned against the door for a moment, relieved to be in the safety of her home. She glanced out the window to see if anyone was there. The sidewalk was empty. After tossing her books on the sofa, she decided to grab a snack and get on-line. She logged on under her screen name ByAngel213. She checked her Buddy List and saw GoTo123 was on. She sent him an instant message:

ByAngel213: Hi I'm glad you are on! I thought someone was following me home today. It was really weird!
GoTo123: LOL You watch too much TV. Why would someone be following you? Don't you live in a safe neighborhood?
ByAngel213: Of course I do. LOL I guess it was my imagination 'cuz I didn't see anybody when I looked out.
GoTo123: Unless you gave your name out on-line. You haven't done that have you?
ByAngel213: Of course not. I'm not stupid you know.
GoTo123: Did you have a softball game after school today?
ByAngel213: Yes and we won!!
GoTo123: That's great! Who did you play?
ByAngel213: We played the Hornets. LOL. Their uniforms are so gross! They look like bees. LOL
GoTo123: What is your team called?
ByAngel213: We are the Canton Cats. We have tiger paws on our uniforms. They are really kewl.
GoTo123: Did you pitch?
ByAngel213: No I play second base. I got to go. My homework has to be done before my parents get home. I don't want them mad at me. Bye!
GoTo123: Catch you later. Bye

Meanwhile......

GoTo123 went to the member menu and began to search for her profile. When it came up, he highlighted it and printed it out. He took out a pen and began to write down what he knew about Angel so far.

Her name: Shannon
Birthday: Jan. 3, 1985
Age:13
State where she lived: North Carolina
Hobbies: softball, chorus, skating and going to the mall.

Besides this information, he knew she lived in Canton because she had just told him. He knew she stayed by herself until 6:30 p.m. every afternoon until her parents came home from work. He knew she played softball on Thursday afternoons on the school team, and the team was named the Canton Cats. Her favorite number 7 was printed on her jersey. He knew she was in the seventh grade at the Canton Junior High School. She had told him all this in the conversations they had on-line. He had enough information to find her now.

Shannon didn't tell her parents about the incident on the way home from the ball park that day. She didn't want them to make a scene and stop her from walking home from the softball games. Parents were always overreacting and hers were the worst. It made her wish she was not an only child. Maybe if she had brothers and sisters, her parents wouldn't be so overprotective.

By Thursday, Shannon had forgotten about the footsteps following her. Her game was in full swing when suddenly she felt someone staring at her. It was then that the memory came back. She glanced up from her second base position to see a man watching her closely. He was leaning against the fence behind first base and he smiled when she looked at him. He didn't look scary and she quickly dismissed the fear she had felt. After the game, he sat on a bleacher while she talked to the coach. She noticed his smile once again as she walked past him. He nodded and she smiled back. He noticed her name on the back of her shirt. He knew he had found her.

Quietly, he walked a safe distance behind her. It was only a few blocks from Shannon's home, and once he saw where she lived he quickly returned to the park to get his car. Now he had to wait. He decided to get a bite to eat until the time came to go to Shannon's house. He drove to a fast food restaurant and sat there until time to make his move. Shannon was in her room later that evening when she heard voices in the living room. "Shannon, come here," her father called. He sounded upset and she couldn't imagine why. She went into the room to see the man from the ballpark sitting on the sofa.
    "Sit down," her father began, "this man has just told us a most interesting story about you." Shannon moved cautiously to a chair across from the man. How could he tell her parents anything? She had never seen him before today!
    "Do you know who I am Shannon?" The man asked.
    "No," Shannon answered.
    "I am a police officer and your online friend, GoTo123."
    Shannon was stunned. "That's impossible! GoTo is a kid my age! He's 14 and he lives in Michigan!"
    The man smiled. "I know I told you all that, but it wasn't true. You see, Shannon, there are people on-line who pretend to be kids; I was one of them. But while others do it to find kids and hurt them, I belong to a group of parents who do it to protect kids from predators. I came here to find you to teach you how dangerous it is to give out too much information to people on-line. You told me enough about yourself to make it easy for me to find you. Your name, the school you went to, the name of your ball team and the position you played. The number and name on your jersey just made finding you a breeze."
    Shannon was stunned. "You mean you don't live in Michigan?" He laughed.
    "No, I live in Raleigh. It made you feel safe to think I was so far away, didn't it?" She nodded.
    "I have a friend whose daughter was like you, only she wasn't as lucky. The guy who found her murdered her while she was at home alone. Kids are taught not to tell anyone when they are alone, yet they do it all the time on-line. The wrong people trick you into giving out information a little here and there on-line. Before you know it, you have told them enough for them to find you without even realizing you have done it. I hope you've learned a lesson from this and won't do it again."
    "I won't," Shannon promised solemnly.
    "Will you tell others about this so they will be safe too?"
    "It's a promise!"

That night Shannon and her dad and Mom all knelt down together and prayed. They thanked God for protecting Shannon from what could have been a tragic situation.

*********************

Please send this to as many people as you can to teach them not to give any information about themselves. This world we live in today is too dangerous to even give out your age, let alone anything else.
EVEN FORWARD THIS TO PEOPLE WITHOUT KIDS SO THEY CAN SEND IT TO THEIR FRIENDS WHO DO HAVE KIDS.
Live for the Lord today for yesterday is gone and tomorrow may never come, but He may!!
Thank You for taking the time to read this - now do you understand why it was so important.!!

~

I hate this kind of thing; paranoid propaganda about the "evilness" of the Internet. It makes me sick. Why? because some fools out there will read this and BELIEVE it. And they'll be scared more and more into believing that the world is a Bad Place.

It's not.

The world is a wonderful place.

Every year it gets better and better.

Yet scum keep insisting that it's not. That it's getting worse. That technology is making us less and less socially minded. That computer games are corrupting the children and that more and more censorship is required...

I'm losing my way a bit.

All of that was based on vague feelings that I have. I haven't bothered to look into the facts of the matter. And I really should, before I dig myself further into baseless ramblings.

Hey...

It's an assembly idea!

A shite one...

But an idea!

So, the subject. Gonzo Potty Mouth. It doesn't make much sense so far, does it? Well, it did last week. To read 41 you'd think I'd just discovered swearing. What with the excessive use of certain words. And whilst that can be powerful to begin with.... you know what I mean.

So, not this week.

Most you'll get now is shite.

Or dagnammit.

And I've been called a poof for using that last one...

How do you know you're getting way too obsessed with something? When you dream about it so much you can't remember what was dreams and what was not-dreams.

Pluralise the weak!

What?

Imagine that you're talking to someone. And they refer to their cousin or aunt or uncle or friend. Now, you don't know whether this cousin, aunt, uncle or friend is male or female. So what do you do? You pluralise them! For example;
P1 - So my friend blew a goat yesterday.
P2 - They did?
P1 - They did.
P2 - Good for them.
P1 - Yup.
P2 - Mm-hmm.
Well, I imagine you have more interesting conversations than that... But you got my idea? Instead of wasting precious time saying "what sex is this person of which you speak?" you can simply ignore it. Refer to them as "they" or "them" and save time!

Why save time?

Um...

So as you can sleep more!

Yeah...

Pluralise the weak, dagnammit!

It's now 1:10am.

I haven't been writing for six hours, don't worry. I did other stuff between then and now.

What did I do?

Made a new stationery...

Damn, it's bad.

It's Sunday. Where the hell did Saturday go?!

Only 35 days left.

Remember that?

Damn! It's the 5th! Six-months today (or yesterday, depending)! Happy anniversary!

Exclamise beyond meaning.

Welcome.

Bye.


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