A creation by Iraqi artist Zerak Mera made from Iraqi army boots is seen where a statue of toppled Iraqi president Saddam Hussein (news - web sites) once stood, in the center of Kirkuk, April 29, 2003. U.S. soldiers began joint street patrols with local police in the troubled northern Iraqi oil city of Kirkuk on Tuesday, a day after a grenade attack injured some ten people. A wave of looting and violence among the city’s ethnically diverse mix of Arabs, Kurds, Turkmens and Assyrians erupted after troops loyal to Saddam Hussein fled the city nearly three weeks ago. REUTERS/Shamil Zhumatov.
This is great! There is a lod of symbolic representation in this piece of art–yes art. I love this thing. I can’t think of a better material to build a statue for sadam, than shoes.

So I have a new desire. It’s this guy. It’s a Harley. It’s not one of your bigger Harleys either. I figure since I’m a starter, I’ll begin with a smaller bike. What do you think? Email me with what you think I should do.

AN AWESOME READ!!!!

http://invisiblog.com/info/faq/

(Here’s my favorite excerpt)

who needs that much anonymity?

q: Who needs that much anonymity?

a: Here are some examples of bloggers and web publishers whose life or liberty has been threatened, or could be endangered in the future:

• Salam Pax, a pseudonymous blogger claiming to be from Iraq, who posted a diary during the recent war. He has not posted since March 24; some suspect he was captured by Iraqi secret police before US forces reached Baghdad. Journalist Paul Boutin was able to trace Salam’s emails to an ISP in Lebanon.
• Iranian blogger and journalist Sina Motallebi was arrested on April 19, and faces charges over the content of his weblog and interviews given to foreign media groups.
• Tunisian web journalist Zouhair Yahyaoui was arrested and imprisoned for publishing political commentary on his web site. Authorities allegedly used torture to force Yahyaoui to reveal his access passwords.
• Cuba recently imprisoned 75 dissidents and democracy activists, including a number of online journalists, for writing articles critical of the government. Many of them were turned in by informers amongst colleagues and even family. Some of their associates continue to publish on the web.

(They can’t help being weird)
They said they posed nude in response to the controversy created by pro-war advocates over Maines’ remark at a concert in London on March 10 that they were ‘ashamed’ President Bush was from their home state of Texas.

So I got the scoop, maybe not on this guy, but on the protesters as a whole. Apparently, these people were inhibiting the abilities of the longshoremen to load their boats with food. So far, no big deal right? Well, this food was being sent to feed our troops. Those troops fighting in Iraq.

It is one thing to express oneself in protesting the war, but to not support our troops is a knife in the back. You may not be for the war, you may not be for fighting Muslims on their land, you may not be for democracy for all people. You have the right to express those views, but to effectively abandon those who give me (and you) that right is treason (in my mind).

I’m not saying this guy deserved to be shot. I’m saying he had no business being there. His business is expressing his views, not in blocking shipments of food.
Look at it this way: If any man or woman were to try to break the troops’ supply chain in Iraq, the troops wouldn’t think twice about killing them. That being said, stop bitching about being shot with rubber bullets, because that is what you did. Just because you life in the United States does not give you the right to act like a terrorist against your own military. Those people are there to serve you. Those people are given orders to follow and they do it well. Go somewhere else to fight your battles of free speech. If you don’t like it, move to a third world country and see how their government treats you when you speak out against them.
Be glad you are alive. Be glad you have freedoms. Be glad you live in America and have troops to serve and protect you. Be glad.

You may remember the article I posted, “War Protesters out of hand?” earlier last week. I wrote about this guy in the upper east side who was part of a peaceful anti-war protest who got shot multiple times by the police. You remember him right? he’s pictured left. I got an email from him the other day and his email is of pretty important significance. He was fairly decent towards my ignorant post and did a very good job of explaining what really happened that day. Here is his email:

“I’m Clay Hinson. I saw my photo, presumably taken from Yahoo News along with
their caption, on your web page. You wrote the following under the title ‘War
protesters out of hand?’:

“This guy got shot 3 times. Does it really take that long before someone gets
the picture? It would have taken one shot from one of those bullets for me to
get my ass on the ground. “Stop drop and roll’ is my motto. You wouldn’t see me
running around like a fool.’

Your comment seems to indicate you have never been shot at by a group before.
It took well under a minute, not ‘that long,’ for the police to shoot me the
three times you are aware of, in the torso. Just moments later, I was also
shot a fourth time in the back of the calf.

I took the first hit in the chest as I was walking a peaceful picket line. The
line of police standing five or ten feet away from us opened fire. I
immediately turned to leave, walking away from the police while trying not to
panic and trample people in the crowd in front of me. That was when I was hit
twice in the back, one immediately after the other. I was a good distance down
the street when I got hit in the calf. I was not at any point ‘running around
like a fool.’ I walked quickly, keeping calm, away from the cops.

If you had been there and followed your motto, ’stop drop and roll,’ you would
have been hit even more times than I was. I saw the police several times that
day focus their fire on people who had fallen to the ground in front of the
advancing police lines, while the rest of the crowd continued to move away. If
I had gotten on the ground in front of that police line that opened fire on our
resolutely peaceful picket line, the Oakland police would have attacked me even
more severely, as evidenced by their behavior towards others they attacked that
day.

The ILWU (Longshoremen’s Union) representative I spoke to said nine of their
workers were injured by police while waiting to go to work. I saw police that
day shooting at white-haired grannies and kids. The media is reporting as fact
the statements of the Oakland police that the crowd was attacked because people
threw rocks and metal bolts at cops. This is patently false. I was there all
morning, throughout the entire event, and saw nothing of the sort. I saw
nobody throw anything at cops, and I have asked many of my friends who were
there, and none of them saw anyone throw rocks or bolts or anything of the sort
at cops. At the picket line where myself and others were attacked there was
abolutely no violence towards the police.

The police, media, and protesters all took a lot of video footage. If anyone
threw anything at cops it would be on video, and it would have been on the news
alongside the footage of attacks on us by police, and our injuries. There is
no such footage, because we did nothing but peacefully picket. National
Lawyers Guild legal observers who were there have reported this, the ILWU has
reported this, and other unaffiliated observers have reported this.

So, how is it that we were “out of
hand?’”

I, of course, responded to his email in the most polite way I could:

“Just so you know, the title of this article was meant to be sarcastic. I didn’t accurately explain it, and for that I am sorry. You guys were protesting war. It was a peaceful protest. That was the joke…and It didn’t come through corretly.

I would LOVE to post your email as a follow up to my article. The truth should be heard, especially with regard to those police shooting the elderly and children.

I swear, sometimes it seems like we’re entering a state of martial law in the states. This is scary.”

I hope you’ve been enlightened by this article, and I hope you don’t fault anyone. I learned a bit from this whole experience. For one thing, I wasn’t there so I can’t really judge someone for taking actions to run or to “stop, drop and roll”. I’m fairly ignorant in these situations. Sure, I’ve shot guns before, but I’ve never tried dodging bullets before. I’ll try to keep my editorial commentary to a minimum and use it only when its overtly comical and can’t be construed as am informative, fact-based viewpoint on things.

Thanks for reading,
Jason (ramdac).

As I was helping a friend move this weekend, she decided to get cable TV and cable internet service through Comcast Cable. Being a nice guy and knowing a bit about cable, I decided I’d help setup her internet. I figured it’d be easy since I’d done this sort of thing before a few times. Little did I know that I’d be given the run-around by their customer service (or customer dis-service).

I knew it’d be tricky to get the cable-modem provisioned the day after all the equipment was dropped off by the cable-guy but I didn’t think it’d take me two or more hours. I started on this quest by calling the local Comcast contact number. There was an option for internet and was forwarded to a nice lady in some “international”department as she called it. She gave me the number to the “activation” department. I tried the number and a recording came on the phone saying “this number is no longer valid”. I called the international department and explained that I had setup my modem (all the lights were on and beaming), told her about the phony activation number, gave her my MAC address and told her I wanted to get the modem provisioned. She said “sure thing” and put me on hold while she talked to the provisioning department.

This is the first main problem. The lady came back on the phone and told me the provisioning department couldn’t provision my modem. Isn’t this their job? Their only function is to provision. Seemingly, all they need to know is my MAC address to the cable modem. From a technical standpoint this is all one needs to know. I guess I’m more angry with their business rules. Well, they didn’t outright explain to me that the reason they couldn’t provision me was because our account number hadn’t been setup. I merely assumed it because the lady told me to call the local office, select the “billing” option and have them transfer me to the provisioning department.

This is where we find the second main problem. I called the local number, selected the billing option from the menu and was given the standard message “please hold while we transfer you to your account executive”. Great! I felt special. I didn’t know I’d have my own executive with which to speak. So I held onto the line. And held I did. I waited ten minutes until I heard a second “click” followed by a recording “If you’d like to make a call please hang up and try your call again”. What kind of account executive is that? Needless to say, I was mad. I wouldn’t have been so mad if I had gotten that message instantly rather than having to wait ten minutes. I didn’t give up. Giving them the benefit of the doubt, I assumed it was a fluke and decided to try again. I got the same damned result. How annoying. I tried once more to this local number figuring they needed 3 chances before I gave up on them. I got the same treatment this 3^rd time. I’d spent at least 30 minutes on hold having not spoken to anyone. My line had also been dropped 3 times with them. I decided to call again and go back to the “international” department where I could at least talk to a human. I made sure to tell them about my local number not working. I was hoping to find someone nice enough to be able provision my modem. My luck didn’t pan out like that at all. The guy on the phone put me on hold a few times. We went back and forth while he “investigated” the issue. There was nothing to investigate! I told him everything he needed to know. Here were the facts:

• The Local office won’t answer
• I don’t have an account number
• I have registered equipment (They can verify by my serial numbers)
• I want my equipment provisioned.

After his many “investigations” he finally told me he simply could not help me out. He said to keep trying the local office. I politely told him thanks, and hung up. I was pretty steamed. I had called the local office 4 times total (I didn’t mention the first time earlier) and none of those attempts had worked. The first time I called the local office, I chose the billing-question option. The automated menu asked me for the phone number on the account. Well guess what? If the account isn’t setup, there’s no way they have the phone number. What a waste of time.

Finally, I called the local number and by some strange fate, I was able to talk to someone. She seemed nice enough. I decided not to barrage her with questions about why no one answered. I probably should have. How else are they going to know unless someone tells them? I guess I’m more comfortable with writing an article on my website about it and hoping they read it (not likely). I had to give her all the information regarding the account. If I known it’d take this, I would have selected “setup new account” at the very start, but I didn’t want to have to do this. She activated the account, gave me yet a new number to call for provisioning my modem, and then hung up.

I called this new number and was greeted by an interesting fellow. I told him I needed my modem provisioned. He asked “How do you know it needs to be provisioned?” Was he serious? He obviously thought I was some sort of idiot. I told him in my most condescending tone, “My account was just setup and activated, I was just given a username, I’ve given no one my MAC address corresponding to my account, the modem is setup, all lights are on, and I cannot sign on. It needs to be provisioned”. He then said “You’re right then. Hold on just a sec”. I guess this guy deals with idiots all day. I’d probably come off sounding as jaded as he did If I had to deal with goobers all day. Anyway, he got the modem provisioned and I was finally able to get online and write this article. I had plans for a different article today, but with all the Comcast crap with which I’ve had to deal, I felt compelled to write this in its stead.

My boss sent out an email to everyone on my team encouraging them to congratulate me. I was somewhat elated. I got loads of emails.
Anyway, my official title is now “C/S Develeper/Analyst II”. Good stuff, eh? Anyway, check this crap out!   “A gunman in a speeding car opened fire on a motorcade carrying ‘gangsta’ rapper Snoop Dogg and his bodyguards, slightly injuring one person and leaving the Los Angeles police on April 11, 2003 with few clues as to who might be shooting at one of rap’s biggest stars. Snoop Dogg is seen at the NBA Finals (news - web sites) in East Rutherford, New Jersey, in this June 12 file photo. Photo by Mike Blake/Reuters”
Can you believe this trash? The man finally tries to leave the whole gang scene, smoke pot, stick with peace, and now people are trying to kill him. Again. Why can’t we all just get along, huh?.
Hey, that’s great. I’ll always remember that my first promotion was the day someone tried to shoot Snoop. Way to go D O double G. Way to go for staying alive. Keep it real man.

“Indonesian elementary school students wear masks in a private school in Jakarta’s Chinatown on April 8, 2003. The school’s principal said the precautionary measure was taken to protect the children from the spread of the deadly flu-like Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), as many Chinese-Indonesians living and working in the school area frequently go to Singapore and Hong Kong.”(Beawiharta/Reuters).
Pictures like this are shown all over Asia. It seems to be common there now. I heard on NPR today that China tried to cover up the severity of SARS because they didn’t want to threaten China’s economy. Apparently SARS broke out around the same time an economic summit had been planned in China. How’s that for an human right’s disaster? Regardless, I think the world realizes the severity of this issue, even if China is still lying about how many people have died from it. I’ll be happy when China realizes that saving people is more important than saving face.

“Berkeley resident Clay Hinson (R), who was shot once in the chest and twice in the back during an anti-war protest, shows his wounds to an Oakland Police sergeant (L) who takes his statement at the West Oakland train station, April 7, 2003. Oakland police fired rubber bullets and wooden pellets on Monday to disperse hundreds of anti-war protesters in what was believed to be their first such use against U.S. protesters since the American-led war on Iraq (news - web sites) began. REUTERS/Tim Wimborne.”
This guy got shot 3 times. Does it really take that long before someone gets the picture? It would have taken one shot from one of those bullets for me to get my ass on the ground. “Stop drop and roll” is my motto. You wouldn’t see me running around like a fool.