New pictures are up in the gallery — mainly the cat, Karen, and of Kelly’s cake — as so noted!

I haven’t had a chance to taste said cake, but preliminary reports say that it will be tastee and yummee. In that order.

So ill. The last time I felt like this, I was 12 years old, and the Desert Shield had just turned into Desert Storm. “Is this war?” I asked my mom. Even though it was thousands of miles away, in a land I’d only seen in pictures, I felt this horrible pang in my stomach. I feel like that now, even though I’m older, and I think I understand the world better.

But this. This strikes at home. This enemy has no face. “No return address” as they kept saying on TV. This enemy is not military. This enemy has rules only governed by the most base human quality of hatred.

And at the same time, I can’t help but to feel that this could have been averted. Our foreign policy has gone to shit — we back a country that chooses to defend itself in manners in which we would never dare. Did we not rebel against a tyrranous empire? Did we not fight for our own scrap of land? Our own brand of freedom?

I try to stay as neutral as I can. But when such a horrifyingly scheme, so precise, so cunning, so evil is exacted upon civilians — whether they be on our soil or on anothers, that cannot stand.

I feel so ill. I haven’t eaten. My head aches with the images I’ve seen today. Boxed in. Trapped.

if any of you happened to see the story that was up here earlier — click below
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i apologize. it was posted earlier this morning, and due to a bug in the code (related to the billenium it didn’t show up until i fixed the bug. it was crude, and just plain wrong. i apologize again. thanks be to hunter for knocking some sense into me.

After a lengthy stretch of service, theLocust II (a beefy Celeron 400Mhz machine) decided to take a dive on Wednesday night, whilst I was playing Day Of Defeat on my Linux machine using Wine. Not a happy man was I! But lo! From the ashes of that little holocaust arises it’s predecessor — gone from public view for 12 months, laying idle — the original theLocust (a Pentium 100Mhz machine). All I had to do was put the network cards and hard drive from theLocust II into theLocust, and she fired up no problemo!

Methinks that the motherboard went bad in it. It was only a spry 2 years old or so (I’m guessing!), and that Pentium 100 motherboard is easily 6 or 7. They sure don’t make ‘em like they used to!

Hey all you loyal theLocustRadio fans — i’m in the process of moving the radio streamer to the MP3 box, so I can do more adventurous things with the radio station. The radio widget on the right will be broken for the time being — but in the meantime, you can still listen by clicking HERE or opening “https://thelocust.org:8000″ in your favorite MP3 player!

More soon!

I just read a really good article over at Kuro5hin regarding one’s trip through detox. ‘What drug?’ you ask. It’s not one that many would consider worthy of the gut-wrenching soul-crushing ordeal that we’ve come to see in movie-detoxes.

An interesting perspective on drugs and excess in general. The comments to the story are nearly as good as this little anecdote itself. The “geek” culture isn’t know for it’s heavy use of “normal drugs” (i.e. pot, coke, LSD, etc) — not for drugs not for mind expansion, but drugs to enhance concentration, elongate the short hours of the day, etc.

What makes a “drug”? Well, it’s anything really — sex, toast, coffee, pot — whatever. The outcome is the same. The body, the person, the mind craves whatever it is, even to do the smallest tasks. Bored? Do it. Just ate? Do it. About to eat? Do it. Waking up? Do it. Going to sleep? Do it. Party? Do it. It’s all the same, really. Some drugs are worse than others, for sure, but the mental position is essentially the same.

So do real, competent D.J.’s ever do weddings as I side gig? I wasn’t sure. Would it be an affront to their musical sensibilities? Are they willing to slum for a gig that pays the occasional fat bag of cash money?

I guess it’s analogous to the question — do web developers/designers ever do the occasional porn site? Do they ever throw up something for the local barber? Where do taste/morals/ethics collide?

Below is a short conversation on that very subject — a promising local DJ, skilled in the arts of the ambient, the trance, the “weird” — offered the job of DJ’ing a wedding. An affront? A sack of cash? Where is the line drawn?!
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BenCorvus: hey there!

weird*@%!: howdy

BenCorvus: i’m going to ask you a question which may undermine your entrie indie credibility

weird*@%!: heheh

weird*@%!: go

BenCorvus: you ever do weddings?

BenCorvus: hehe

weird*@%!: like dj at weddings?

BenCorvus: yah

weird*@%!: i have before

weird*@%!: it’s not the most glorious gig

BenCorvus: no, it’s not — but it’s good for the cash

weird*@%!: exactly

BenCorvus: well, Kelly and I are going to be married next spring

weird*@%!: and you need a dj…

BenCorvus: and i thought “who is the first dj who pops to mind?”

weird*@%!: superstar dj jason clark

BenCorvus: and then i thought “oh my, no! he’s TOO COOL”

weird*@%!: heheh… ya got that right, mister

weird*@%!: ;-)

BenCorvus: “it would undermine his indie cred, and he would scoff”

BenCorvus: hehe

weird*@%!: sheeeeesh

BenCorvus: hehe

weird*@%!: hmmm….

BenCorvus: well, give it some thought — i don’t even know how much money would be appropriate

weird*@%!: yeah… i’ll think about it… just don’t make me play the electric slide

BenCorvus: all i know is that NORMALLY, and by NORMALLY, i mean all the goddamned time

BenCorvus: OH NO!

BenCorvus: it’s funny you mention that

BenCorvus: kelly’s mother LOVES the electric slide

BenCorvus: i hate it

weird*@%!: kill me now

weird*@%!: ;-)

BenCorvus: i said “any self-respecting DJ would shoot themselves, or at least make a feeble attempt to wash away the dirty feeling”

weird*@%!: ha ha!!

weird*@%!: let me mull it over

BenCorvus: well, like i said, I didn’t know if you even did this, and if you did, if you still would.

BenCorvus: aight

BenCorvus: well, the opportunity is there — and thanks for the backup on the Electric Slide

BenCorvus: no duck dance, though! i managed to squeeze that one in.

weird*@%!: sometimes things like that are a blast, but then again sometimes they are _scary_

BenCorvus: true

BenCorvus: i’m attempting to avoid the “scary”

weird*@%!: gimme a couple days to think about it… is the date set?

BenCorvus: April 26th 2002

BenCorvus: yah, mull it over

BenCorvus: like Martin Mull

weird*@%!: alright… congrats either way!

BenCorvus: why thanks!

BenCorvus: you can go by a codename

BenCorvus: Dr. Octagon

BenCorvus: we’ll keep it on the hush-hust

BenCorvus: the QT

weird*@%!: yeah right

weird*@%!: ;-)

The more I read TV Go Home, the more I find it uproariously funny. Published bi-weekly, or is it bi-monthly? Whatever, every two weeks, it is. In any case, it’s set up like a page from TVGuide, except if TVGuide had the bollocks (it’s English, you see) to tell it how it really is. Every word, every disturbing little thought on this page skewers oh-so-perfectly the tv/radio/internet/infotainment cliche ever imagined.

There are recurring themes involved here, from weekly descriptions of “The Ten Tasks of One-Armed, One-Legged Hercules” to the occasional “Holiday Special. I don’t know how they manage to come up with such incredibly spot-on bits of humor, all the more incisive and uproariously funny as TheOnion.

Well, get on with it! Go read it. You’ll enjoy.

Well, a few years ago, my beloved girlie-friend Kelly introduced me to “Blenheim“, a strong ginger-ale that was served at Heine Brothers Coffee here in Louisville. Wowee-wow-wow was this stuff intense! Head-sweatinging hot, but not the sort of hot that hurts (like salsa or Indian death fire).

Well, Heine Brothers decided to bump down from the “Hot” version of Blenheim (apparently there is a “Not So Hot” version (and a “Diet” version) — and I longed for the lid-flipping “Hot” style — and I have found it for sale locally! At the Fresh Market (no website as I can tell) on Shelbyville Road. Rejoice! Rejoice!

As I come to find out, this stuff has been brewed in South Carolina by a tiny little company since 1903 — and it is considered a treasure of that state, and the South, really. Now, God knows I love some state-favorite ginger ales, and this is no exception. So, if you get a chance — get some Blenheim — and a glass of water, you’ll need it.

New pics in the gallery from the Kentucky State Fair are up!

Also, some pics from the Revenge of the Panini are up. Pretty uneventful there, but for posterity’s sake — here they are.

Kelly and I went to the fair today. Many people I know have an aversion to the fair, but frankly, I love it. Not for the expensive beer and the crap-filled Midway, but for the animals, art, and the various and sundry people you see there… There are quite a few shots of some of the excellent art found there — photographic and otherwise. You should check it out… Enjoy!

Another day older and deeper in debt. No, wait, that’s what Tennessee Ernie Ford gets you.

The Palestinians fight for land claimed for them in a book about a guy with decent core ideas.

The Israelis defend the land they sit on claimed for them in a book about a guy with decent core ideas.

Attack! Counter-Attack! Bomb! Snipe!

What would Muhammad/the Prophet/God/Allah do? I’m sure he’d shake his/her head and think “woah nelly! we are merely people who put forth ideas of love.”

And then they would be killed because they are standing across the wrong line.

Go watch Dogma.