IMJack

IMJack on Radio UTD, tonight from 10pm to Midnight, Central Time.

http://radio.utdallas.edu/

Punk rock and then some.

“When you’re dealing with people like this, your first priority is to not get killed. Usually their first impulse when dealing with things like this is to slaughter anyone who could be involved.”
- - “A lot like us, in fact.”
“Exactly. But these guys are big on secrecy, and are responsive to threats like going to court or going to the press. They wouldn’t dare kill any press.”
- - “A lot not like us.”
“Right. These people’s existence relies on nobody knowing who they are and how they work. These people are scumbags, but nobody can know it.”
- - “Whereas we Morgans are scumbags, but everybody knows it!”
“Bingo! You’re really gettin’ into this!”
- “Why are you telling me all this?”
“Well, Nabiki here has caught on to one little thread that you haven’t. The Blue Berets are no longer an immediate threat to you and your girls. Right now, the most immediate threat is staring you in the face, eating your pickles, and rummaging through your medicine drawer.”
- “Wha-? Hey, get out of there!”
- - - “Can’t help it, lady. I’m allergic to catgirl dander, and this place is killin’ me.”

I'm stupid enough to post a two-fer tonight.

Charles Brown had been in the Army for a long time.

He’d enlisted straight out of high school, literally walking off the hangover from the graduation party on his way to the recruitment center. It was either that, or go to state college with the same people he’d known since elementary school. He’d decided that, no mater what, he had to get out of St. Paul.

That was 1969. This was 2030. In the time between, he’d fought one war in Vietnam, two in Afghanistan, three in Iraq (he’d been out wounded for the fourth), one in South Africa, and a brief one in China, not to mention countless police actions and interventions in the meantime.

Over the course of his career, he had advanced from boot Private to First Sergeant before being accepted to OCS, and then had worked his way through the officer ranks to full General. In the meantime, he had learned how to fight in jungles, in deserts, in cities, in mountains, and in tundra; he had been through infantry school, dive school, jump school, SEAL school, Ranger school, and had even been in the only class of the failed Space Infantry School experiment. He had even taken part in a number of human experiments before such things were shut down.

Charlie was the kind of guy who was going to stay in the Army, on active combat duty, until it finally killed him. Or he would, if he thought he could still be killed. As it was, once the warrior life got boring, he was planning to wait for a convenient death scene and then slip away, lie low for a few years, and then perhaps start over in the Navy or something. But for now, he had a duty to perform.

Lots of duties. The Army knew a good man when they saw one, and Charlie Brown was worth a platoon of them.

“Doc Morgan, our boss, tries to brew his own whiskey every year. He tests it out on us grunts. If it’s good, he hoards a bunch away and sells off the rest. If it’s not so good, he sticks it in our cold-weather rations.”

"Let's say you have two grocery stores. They're essentially identical: similar prices, similar layout, similar staff, etcetera.

"The only real difference is: At the entrance to one store, you have a senior citizen acting as a 'greeter'. At the other store, you have an armed guard. Based only on that, which store would you rather shop in? Danny?"

"Armed guard, all the way."

"Why?"

"'Cuz if things go to shit, the old guy isn't gonna back you up in a firefight."

"... What?"

"What could possibly 'go to shit' in a grocery store?"

"Plenty!"

"Like what?!"

"Like maybe some bagger is late for work again, and he gets the call from the store manager. But rather than just quitting like a normal person, this kid decides to grab his uncle's AK and head down to the store for some retribution."

"... That's never gonna happen."

"It does! I've seen it happen. First firefight I was ever in, back in high school, way before I enlisted. ... Couldn't do much other than take cover, but still -"

"Bull. Shit."

"Ladies and gentlemen, Ranma has called bullshit."

"Whatever. Are you gonna shut up now, or you gonna keep this up?"

"Or do you have proof?"

"Oh, I got proof. I can tell you all about it, and I can tell you who else knows about it. You can ask 'em yourself."

"Hmph. Go."

"Ah! Sit back, boys and girls, and you shall hear a tale! A tale about a dark day back in August '22, when a kid we called Donny decided he wasn't gonna put up with Don's Food's shit anymore..."

My parents found a puppy.

I would kill to be able to see, feel, pet, love this dog right now. But I'll have to settle for helping my dad scan photos of her and then throw them up online. I would kill a human being with my own hands, for a chance to see a dog.

Juniper. Shepherd mix of some kind. Found abandoned in some backwoods corner of Utah with her two littermates. I'm told she looks like a cross between my Misty and my Jenny.

I didn't cry when I learned that Misty died. I didn't cry when Jenny died in my arms. So why do I feel like crying now?

PUPPY PHOTOS!!!

<center>I am Jack's Patriot Day Radio Show!

Thursday, 11 September
4-6 pm Central Daylight Time
11pm-1am Greenwich Mean Time

Radio UTD: Internet Radio By & For Students at the University of Texas at Dallas

Featuring Appropriately Patriotic Tunes By
The Vandals
Anti-Flag
Sage Francis
The (International) Noise Conspiracy
Dillinger Four
The Lawrence Arms
Flogging Molly
Hot Water Music
Tsunami Bomb
The Bouncing Souls
The Alkaline Trio
Less Than Jake
~ and many more ~

Play it loud, play it proud, play it where other people will hear it!</center>

A history of the Doom movie in the DoomWorld forums:

DooM - The Movie ?, begun by Renegade_Style on 07-02-01

On the Doom movie again, begun by Jeremy on 07-12-01

READ!!!!, begun by Jeremy on 07-29-01

DOOM movie, begun by bigbadgangsta on 08-08-01

thoughts concerning a Doom movie..., begun by Prime on 11-14-01

Doom Movie Question, begun by KingKill33 on 12-19-01

isn't a doom movie?, begun by MyStiKaL_BiOn on 12-20-01

Wasn't there a hollywood movie of Doom?, begun by Kai on 03-11-02

doom movie.. what do you think?, begun by HAMMER-STROKE on 06-03-02

Doom Movie, begun by RailGunner on 07-30-02

Any word on a movie???, begun by Affirmative on 08-18-02

Action figures, a new novel series and maby even a movie.. [kewl], begun by HAMMER-STROKE on 08-19-02

Doom, the movie, begun by WhileIM on 09-25-02

The Doom Movie, For Real This Time?, begun by Linguica on 09-25-02 *

if worst comes to worse..., begun by Ct_red_pants on 09-28-02

A very cool idea (in my opinion), begun by ricky_steel on 01-10-03

A Doom Movie?? , begun by MagnuM on 04-16-03

Doom movie, to be or not to be, begun by Gau666 on 05-22-03

Doom ]|[ movie, begun by pl0mk3r on 07-03-03

Doom 3 OST, begun by Nick on 08-04-03

Concerning the SWAT scriptwriter, as broken on Blue's News:
Latest Doom Movie Crap, begun by mewse on 08-08-03
Doom Movie Planned, begun by Baron of Hell on 08-09-03
Note that this news is four years old, and has already been discredited.

I'm getting a filling or two done this afternoon. I hate getting fillings.

I write shit. I have shit that I want to write, but never have the willpower to sit down and write some coherent piece. So when I do get a flash of inspiration, I try to just write that little blurb and let it sit. Myabe have others look it over and comment.

~~~

"Look, I know what it's like. I see a lot of people questioning their life, especially in this business. I've seen so much of it, and hated it so much, that I decided to try and help anybody in my outfit that was having problems.

"So this is how it works: If I see you sitting there, questioning your existance on my time, I will beat you until your existance is no longer in question. When I'm done you will know, without a doubt, whether you are alive or not. Understood?"

"You're one morbid sonofabitch, you know that?"

"You're one to talk, Mr. 'Lets-Throw-Their-Heads-In-The-Freezer-So-We-Can-Have-Ice-Brains-For-Dessert'."

"I only did that twice."

"This is starting to look real familiar. It ain't covered in jungle... but it's the exact same shit."

Quote from my dad, while watching Dateline tonight about the increased fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. There was a video of a GI holding a mortar base down with his feet.

For context, my dad arrived in Saigon a few hours before the Tet Offensive did.

This summer, I'm playing the IT intern/gopher/ninja in a dotcom retailer's warehouse in Salt Lake. I'm doing general repairs, troubleshooting, and parts replacement on the 120 or so individual machines in this 1/2-sq.mile warehouse while my boss does network overwatch and handles all the really big problems (like our server room overheating this weekend).

There are two wireless mouse/keyboard combos that customers have returned to us for some reason. It's my experience that wireless interfaces are utter shit, and these units aren't helping my opinion. However, I have come to believe that these two units are cursed. When users in the warehouse see these wireless units in the Returns department, they are somehow compelled to take them and set them up on their own machines. When they do, and they realize the wireless things are shit, they IT up to replace their normal generic equipment, which have vanished into the aether thanks to the curse of the cordless mice. Which finally involves me trekking across the warehouse with a new keyboard and mouse, setting it up on their machine while they wait impatiently, then returning the accursed cordless to the "safekeeping" of Returns.

The first time I laid eyes on the damn'd peripherals, they were being used by two Returns clerks. It was easy enough to get solved, and the worst part of it was carrying the two keyboards clear to the opposite corner of the warehouse from the IT office. That was the beginning of last week.

Thursday and Friday of last week, the cordless units had somehow found their way to the Creative offices on the long side of the warehouse. The one guy, the Creative manager, spent fifteen minutes harping at me to get a phone line wired to his little corner of nowhere. I'd love to help you, man, but I'd have to go through my boss, and he's busier than I am. The other guy is the classic haughty artfag, and I was taking time away from his precious Photoshopping.

This morning, the one unit turned up again, this time in the Jewelry Cage. This is the single highest security area in the entire warehouse; just by being in there, I'll be under extreme scrutiny for the rest of the day and get an extra-special search by Security when I go home tonight. I got the cordless unit back to Receiving and left a note on it, warning any user that took it that they would face the wrath of the IT ninja. But the other unit was nowhere to be seen.

My guess is that it will turn up in the warehouse manager's office. I haven't had to deal with him yet, but he ain't exactly the most pleasant human being.

My dog passed away this evening.

This morning, first thing, my dad and I had to take her to the vet to get bloodwork done. She hopped right in the car when we asked her to. At the vet, she's with it enough to hop right on the scale and hold still. They took one tube's worth out of her neck, and though she didn't like the muzzle they put on, she took the needle without any complaint.

We'd known Jenny was sick since late last year, when she was diagnosed with anemia and put on some random drug. After our older dog, Misty, went to sleep in early February, Jenny's condition was all over the place. The vet, damn his eyes, prescribed all sorts of different, possibly conflicting drugs. Finally, at the beginning of May, he diagnosed Jenny with diabetes and prescribed daily insulin shots. Ever try to stick a needle in 90 lbs of solid, energetic Rottweiler? And that's the thing: despite being sick, the worst cisible symptoms she had were a bit of listlessness (normal for my fatass family) and a tendancy not to eat all of her food right away. ANyway, we got her on insulin and she got a lot more energy and a lot better appetite. Then, about ten days ago, the vet decided to up her insulin to twice daily.

Anyway, we're at the vet this morning and Jenny is her lively self. The vet takes a moment to take a look at her, and says she looks kinda pale. The bloodwork includes normal diabetes tests as well as a thyroid panel, which implied she'd be on another drug before long. This is the most expensive free dog ever, according to my dad.

So we get Jenny home and Dad and I take off to look at trucks. We get home a few hours later, and Jenny is as lively as ever. She even gave me one of her Rottie-hugs. Jenny loves physical contact; a very touchy-feely dog.

My mom gets home and feeds Jenny before we head out to church. Jenny eats it all. We head out, short Mass, nice dinner at this barbeque place, and come home about 7:15. jenny is there to greet my mom. She had an accident at the top of the steps, which is unusual.

At 7:25, I'm reading the forums when my dad calls me upstairs. Jenny is lying by the dining room table, barely breathing. My mom knows she's dying. We all petted Jenny and told her how much we love her. She went very gently right about 7:30.

My siser got back from the stereotypical post-graduation teen adventure in San Diego around 10:45. We all went to meet her at her friend's place. We got in the car and prompted her to tell us about her trip, but she read us like an open book and insisted on finding out what was wrong. She took it surprisingly well; she spent the drive home sobbing quielty in my mom's arms, but didn't go utterly ballistic like I expected her to.

We got Jenny's material form wrapped in bedsheets. Dad and I spent the last few hours of sunlight digging out a plot in the garden. My mom says that when our dog Mufin died when I was little, Dad dug the plot by himself "like a man possessed." I helped him dig this time, and I think my being there helped him alot. My dad keeps a lot of pain, new and old, beneath a tightly controlled exterior, but when it breaks through it breaks through hard.

Jenny will be interred at first light tomorrow morning. She joins my older dog Misty and our parakeet Ziggy, who bothed passed away earlier this year. She leaves behind five years of memories and love in this world.

Raise a glass.