I originally started this "blog" if you will back in 1996, before it was even called a blog. At that time it was maybe called a web log, which is what morphed into just blog. It used to reside as a page in my site on AOL. I thought I'd revisit those days and my entries from then. Here goes:
From October 1996
Someone once said that opinions are like bellybuttons - everyone has 'em. Am I any different? Of course I'm not any different! I may be more vocal than some other people I know, but that's beside the point.
What follows are my own observations about life, love and this crazy mixed up planet we call earth. For lack of a better term, I settled on calling them something that I'm partial to: Cookies. My personal favorite is chocolate chip, preferably the $250 variety :::grin::: (if you didn't understand that reference, you haven't spent much time on the 'net, and I really suggest you start reading A.F.U., otherwise known as "alt.folklore.urban" posthaste).
October 23, 1996. Why is it that no matter what the posted speed limit is on a street or highway, people will always choose to travel at least 10 mph over it? And if you're one of the rare few who choose NOT to drive like you're living in the fast lane, everyone seems to get angry at you? Too often these days, people take driving too seriously and too personally....far too many people are quick to take out their frustrations by violent means. Just this past week, a young mother was shot and killed by one well-aimed bullet fired from a vehicle whose driver was angry that the car the woman was a passenger in had cut him off on the freeway. Because of this, a baby is now motherless. Why can't people just let it DROP when someone angers them momentarily on the freeway? Is it really that important to exact revenge? I get irritated by other people's driving habits all the time, and I imagine I irritate others with mine. But the irritation fades quickly and by the time I'm 5 to 10 miles down the road, the incident is all but forgotten.
October 25, 1996. Microsoft mogul Paul Allen is spending his money again. Latest venture is something called the "Experience Music Project" which is a proposed museum honoring Jim Hendrix and other Northwest music artists. I don't remember the actual price tag for the facility (I keep thinking $60 million) but it was something outlandish. Having seen the mockup of the complex, one wag described it thusly: "It's attractive in a sort of organic, contoured, smooth way" or something to that effect. I have to agree...it was the most bizarre-looking piece of architecture I've seen in a long time. I guess you have to see it to truly grasp the concept, but to me, the buildings are shaped like mountains or mounds of dirt, painted that way also.
Oh well, it's Paul Allen's money...guess he can spend it any way he chooses. Must be nice, having money to waste. Me...I'm just lucky to make the mortgage payment each month :::grin:::
October 29, 1996. Today, I am filled with sadness for one of my friends has passed away. How fragile is the thread of life, our hold on mortality. He was still young, only 41, and yet his life is gone now. His wife grieves, heartbroken and devastated. It was so swift. Her soulmate is gone.
We take so many things for granted, that the ones we love will always be there with us and for us. And then, in a twinkling of an eye, it all changes and we are alone. I am re-evaluating my own life and priorities today and I know that I and going to be changing a few things.
March 6, 1997. I've been thinking a lot about corporate downsizing lately. Many of us have been victims of it, losing jobs or perhaps being one of the "lucky" ones who haven't been riffed. I say "lucky" because those who stay frequently have to take up the slack and do their own work, as well as the work of those who've been cut. For the same pay. Or even if they get more pay, the company no longer has to pay benefits, etc. for the riffed employees, thus a supposed cost-saving. But that cost-saving isn't passed on to the remaining employees in the form of more pay..oh no, it's used to line the pockets of the CEOs and others at the top of the heap. The gap between wage earners and top execs continues to widen.
It's been said that the middle class is slowly disappearing....now we just have the haves and the have nots and nothing in between. I don't know what my point is today...guess the gloom of a rainy March day has gotten under my skin and colored my outlook.
April 8, 1997. Recently, a 6-year-old girl disappeared in a small town that I have familial ties to. The news showed a mother's anguish initially and the whole community was put on alert. The child had disappeared in the two blocks between her apartment and the school she was walking to. But I know this neighborhood and something about the story didn't sound right. This is a busy area and LOTS of children would have been walking this route at the same time of day, yet NO ONE saw anything suspicious. Eventually, the little girl's body was found washed up on the beach. Foul play was obviously suspected. I visited this town over the past weekend and heard a different story than had been told on the news. Seems that results from the autopsy showed that the girl had been dead longer than she had been reported missing, i.e time of death was prior to the time she was supposedly walking to school. Other things are odd. Another child who ordinarily walks to school with the girl had stopped by the house that morning to pick her up and was told she was not ready yet and to go on. Later that same morning, around 11 am, the mother showed up at the school with a lunch for the girl. This is not unusual except that the girl NEVER brought lunch to school..she always ate the school lunch (I think she was on the free lunch program for low-income families). This was when it was "discovered" that she was not at school.
A child is dead and evidence is pointing strongly toward murder by someone in her own family. The evil that lurks in the hearts of some is a concept I cannot comprehend..I love my children with all my heart and soul and the thought of harming them unto death is so foreign to me - I am absolutely appalled.
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