Sometimes reputations outlive their applications

(And yes, I actually signed my letter Dr. Timothy Reese.)


Dear Dr. Reese:

Thank you for taking the time to contact me. I value the
correspondence I get from people back home in Wisconsin, and I
would like to take this opportunity to address your concerns.

As you may know, "net neutrality" refers to the concept
that Internet network operators should be neutral conduits of
content. In other words, phone, cable, and other companies that
operate Internet networks should not be permitted to favor or
prioritize some Internet traffic over other traffic.

Internet network operators have recently argued they
should be permitted to charge higher rates for some types of
content and services than others. This would give network
operators the ability to sell priority status to content providers. In
exchange for a fee, certain content would receive priority over
general traffic and move from point to point more quickly.
Network operators claim these fees would permit network
upgrades and the creation of new services. They also argue this
tiered service option would benefit consumers by managing
Internet traffic more effectively and therefore offering a higher
speed Internet.

Internet content providers are generally opposed to any
attempt to undermine the current impartiality of the Internet.
These companies, which provide the "content" of the Internet,
believe net neutrality is crucial for the continued growth and
success of the Internet. Content providers argue that permitting
priority pricing on the Internet would restrict consumer choice and
activity and would fundamentally undermine the Internet.

On January 9, 2007, Senator Byron Dorgan (D-ND)
introduced S. 215, the "Internet Freedom Preservation Act," which
would amend the Communications Act of 1934 to ensure net
neutrality. This bill has been referred to the Committee on
Commerce, Science, and Transportation, of which I am not a
member. You can be assured that I will keep your views in mind
should I have an opportunity to vote on this legislation.

You may be interested to know that on June 14, 2006, the
Judiciary Committee, on which I serve, held a hearing entitled,
"Reconsidering Our Communications Laws: Ensuring Competition
and Innovation," during which Members heard testimony on a
number of issues concerning telecommunications, in particular, the
competitive implications of net neutrality. As the Chairman of the
Judiciary Committee's Subcommittee on Antitrust, Competition
Policy, and Consumer Rights, you can be sure that I am committed
to developing policies that foster greater competition among
service and content providers and lead to a wider service selection
and lower rates to consumers. We must ensure that consumers
have unfettered access to all internet content free from
discrimination and that broadband providers do not determine
winners and losers on the information superhighway. However, at
the same time, broadband providers need to be able to manage
their networks so that the profusion of video content does not
degrade the internet experience for everyone.

You can be assured I will continue to closely monitor this
issue to ensure that consumers enjoy the benefits of a competitive
telecommunications market. Again, thank you for contacting me
about this important issue. I appreciate having the benefit of your
views.






Sincerely,


Herb Kohl
U.S. Senator

It's been a while since I've been on here, but I guess that was the point of deleting my Myspace for a Livejournal in the first place. Myspace was such a time bandit in my life. I'd go on to check this or that and I'd end up wasting at least an hour or two browsing around and listening to music. I've very glad I "broke up" with Myspace and I don't really miss it at all. I got my iPod back form Best Buy today so I feel as complete as i can at this point. I need constant immersion in music most of the time. I'm a music junkie like that.

This was stolen from tiggerdabounce2

1. I love you not because of who you are, but because of who I am when I am with you..
2. No man or woman is worth your tears, and the one who is, won't make you cry.
3. Just because someone doesn't love you the way you want them to, doesn't mean they don't love you with all they have.
4. A true friend is someone who reaches for your hand and touches your heart.
5. The worst way to miss someone is to be sitting right beside them knowing you can't have them.
6. Never frown, even when you are sad, because you never know who is falling in love with your smile.
7. To the world you may be one person, but to one person you may be the world..
8. Don't waste your time on a man/woman, who isn't willing to waste their time on you.
9. Maybe God wants us to meet a few wrong people before meeting the right one, so that when we finally meet that person, we will know how to be grateful.
10. Don't cry because it is over, smile because it happened.
11. There's always going to be people that hurt you so what you have to do is keep on trusting and just be more careful about who you trust next time around.
12. Make yourself a better person and know who you are before you try and know someone else and expect them to know you.
13. Don't try so hard, the best things come when you least expect them to.
REMEMBER: WHATEVER HAPPENS, HAPPENS FOR A REASON.

Current Mood: Hungry
Current Music: Amy Winehouse

When the earth was still flat,
And the clouds made of fire,
And mountains stretched up to the sky,
Sometimes higher,
Folks roamed the earth
Like big rolling kegs.
They had two sets of arms.
They had two sets of legs.
They had two faces peering
Out of one giant head
So they could watch all around them
As they talked; while they read.
And they never knew nothing of love.
It was before the origin of love.

The origin of love

And there were three sexes then,
One that looked like two men
Glued up back to back,
Called the children of the sun.
And similar in shape and girth
Were the children of the earth.
They looked like two girls
Rolled up in one.
And the children of the moon
Were like a fork shoved on a spoon.
They were part sun, part earth
Part daughter, part son.

The origin of love

Now the gods grew quite scared
Of our strength and defiance
And Thor said,
"I'm gonna kill them all
With my hammer,
Like I killed the giants."
And Zeus said, "No,
You better let me
Use my lightening, like scissors,
Like I cut the legs off the whales
And dinosaurs into lizards."
Then he grabbed up some bolts
And he let out a laugh,
Said, "I'll split them right down the middle.
Gonna cut them right up in half."
And then storm clouds gathered above
Into great balls of fire

And then fire shot down
From the sky in bolts
Like shining blades
Of a knife.
And it ripped
Right through the flesh
Of the children of the sun
And the moon
And the earth.
And some Indian god
Sewed the wound up into a hole,
Pulled it round to our belly
To remind us of the price we pay.
And Osiris and the gods of the Nile
Gathered up a big storm
To blow a hurricane,
To scatter us away,
In a flood of wind and rain,
And a sea of tidal waves,
To wash us all away,
And if we don't behave
They'll cut us down again
And we'll be hopping round on one foot
And looking through one eye.

Last time I saw you
We had just split in two.
You were looking at me.
I was looking at you.
You had a way so familiar,
But I could not recognize,
Cause you had blood on your face;
I had blood in my eyes.
But I could swear by your expression
That the pain down in your soul
Was the same as the one down in mine.
That's the pain,
Cuts a straight line
Down through the heart;
We called it love.
So we wrapped our arms around each other,
Trying to shove ourselves back together.
We were making love,
Making love.
It was a cold dark evening,
Such a long time ago,
When by the mighty hand of Jove,
It was the sad story
How we became
Lonely two-legged creatures,
It's the story of
The origin of love.
That's the origin of love.

Current Location: Bed
Current Mood: melancholy
Current Music: Cake

I think I'm going to become an alcoholic. Or a wino. But I couldn't drink mad dog all day so I'd have to drink good wine. I'd rather drink Jose anyway. He's just so good with mountain Dew. Who'da thunk it? Guess I should have bought that flask at the mall yesterday. I'm kinda glad I didn't though. I detest the mall. "Where'd you get that?" "At the mall." I'd be a little embarassed. I fancy myself more creative than that.

Current Location: here
Current Mood: drunk

I just got done watching My Date With Drew and it left me with this warm, fuzzy feeling in my stomach. Usually, I'm a pretty cynical guy and those root for the underdog, feel-good movies don't really do anything for me, but this one was different. Maybe it was because of Drew Barrymore. I'm slightly more hyped about my week even though between now and Lazer Floyd (Friday), it's basically going to suck. I've got to go to the dentist tomorrow...yay...at least I'll get pain killers. Vicodin, you're my only friend. I'm not sure exactly what they gotta do in there but it's never painless and my mouth may be swollen on Friday night. Weaksauce! Woe is me... looks like that warm fuzzy feeling was a mere flight of passing fancy. At least I'll be able to check out for a couple days and feel nothing.

Current Mood: hopeful

It's another sleepless night but I don't feel like going into anything about the state of my life or what's happening in it right off the bat, so here's some random facts about one of my favorite days of the whole year: July 1st. (My birthday if you're not "in the know")

In Bulgaria, there is a tradition called July Morning dating from the hippy period in 1980s and maybe as far back as the 1970s. Young (and not so young) people from all over the country travel (often hitchhike) to the Black Sea coast to meet the first sun rays on the 1st of July. Naturally Uriah Heep's July Morning is the main refrain. Although the tradition is linked to the hippy movement in America, it is still popular in Bulgaria. Strangely, it seems that there is no such tradition in other European countries.

Michael Landon, Marlon Brando, Walter Matthau and Luther Vandross all bit it on my birthday, not in the same year obviously while Lady Di, Missy Elliott, Liv Tyler, Pamela Anderson, Carl Lewis, Dan Aykroid, Karen Black and Sydney Pollack were born on that beautiful date.

Ahhh, Wikipedia. You are my friend and i love the vastness of the useless information contained within your cyberspace walls. I should spend less time looking up useless drivel and more time writing something actually worth reading.

And then there's this.....

In 1980 (the year you were born)

Jimmy Carter is president of the US President Carter announces punitive measures and embargos against the USSR in retaliation for the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan Mount St. Helens in Washington state erupts in a violent blast estimated to be 500 times as powerful as the Hiroshima atomic bomb Ronald Reagan is elected the 40th US president in a sweeping victory US Representative Michael O. Myers is expelled from the House for his role in the Abscam scandal Hewlett-Packard announces release of its first personal computer Microsoft announces their version of UNIX, Xenix Christina Ricci, Chelsea Clinton, Venus Williams, Jessica Simpson, Macaulay Culkin, and Jake Gyllenhaal are born Philadelphia Phllies win the World Series Pittsburgh Steelers win Superbowl XIV New York Islanders win the Stanley Cup The Empire Strikes Back is the top grossing film "Lady" by Kenny Rogers spends the most time at the top of the US charts U.S. viewers get caught up in the "Who Shot J.R.?" cliff hanger on the soap opera series, Dallas, which is solved on a November 21 episode, drawing a record numbers of viewers

Current Location: Not a lucid dream state
Current Mood: quixotic
Current Music: Hair dryer BANG!BANG! clicker-clack

Current Music: Little Shop

I stayed up all nite Thursday and actually got some writing done. Entropy is finished but it was already 3/4 done when I started working on it again, so that's not so impressive. DLG is coming alone but I need to play around with the structure a little more. It's still a little....I don't know the word exactly. I like the fractured narrative but it needs to be shaped a bit more. I want it to jump around a bit more chaotically......

I saw two amazing movies in theaters in two days which was a rare treat for me. The Fountain and Pan's Labyrinth were great, Smokin' Aces was entertaining but pretty forgettable. Is it sad that 3 movies in two days isn't aanywhere near a record for me? I saw 10 movies in 4 days during Horrorfest. I just can't seem to get the Fountain out of my head. Leaving the theater I thought it was good but the more I think about it, the more impressive it was in retrospect. I don't think Emma liked it that much.....I don't know if we can be friends anymore. Although, she did turn me onto Hedwig, so I guess it's okay.

Current Mood: calm
Current Music: The Origin Of Love is playing in my head

My problems with Hollywood

Sad Endings......

What's wrong with a tragic ending? I love a tragic ending. Some movies seem like they were originally conceived with a downer ending but it was later changed to appeal to the masses.

Certain movies call for happy endings that wrap everything up in a neat little package for the masses. They're usually crap, but that's neither here nor there. If you've never seen the painfully mediocre Stranger Than Fiction stop reading now.....

A good number of movies would, in my opinion, have been much better with the sad ending their stories deserved. If Stranger Than Fiction had ended with Harold Crick knowingly giving up his life to "live on forever" in a great work of art, it would have resonated much deeper with it's audience or at least got them talking. I realize that most films nowadays are commercial vehicles designed for mass consumption and not the works of art they should be, but I believe this desire to appeal to everyone is what's crippling mainstream movies. They all want that instant mass appeal with the fast food/action figure tie-ins to make that quick buck.

Twisting and distorting your artistic vision to appeal to the widest audience possible goes against my idea of what filmmaking is all about. We all need to get paid, but completely selling out isn't the answer.

Just because it's escapisim doesn't mean it has to be brainless. I wanna be challenged, confused, angered, disgusted by the time I'm done with a movie. The worst part is to walk out of the movie feeling nothing and thinking nothing.

Which would be better in your opinion? A movie that shocked you, offended you and made you generally angry for a whole week after you saw it? Or a movie full of pretty CGI, explosions and car chases that was forgotten the next day? Any reaction that art can inspire in it's audience is good, even if the emotion isn't. If I made a film and half the people who saw it downright loathed it while the other half thought it was great, I'd be exstatic. That's the perfect reaction for any work of art in my opinion.

I looked up movies with "tragic endings" on IMDB and two on the list kinda bugged me. Saving Private Ryan and Man On Fire. Both, in my opinion, were not only pretty happy endings, but vaugley similar. With a person, or people, giving up their lives so someone else can live. What's so tragic about that?

Current Mood: artistic

I think my problem is that I'm constantly thinking of the past while always looking to the future. I'm doing this at the expense of the present and my life is breezing past me. One day.....next time, swear to god.....ahhhh, fuck it. Am I happy....or merely content? I've been getting some good writing done these last couple of days but I'm too distracted. I need to cut myself off from the whole "scene" for a while and really throw myself into my work....and I'm not talking about the fucking movie theater. The movie theater which I may or may not be working at much longer anyway, but that's a different story for a different day. Friday I'm going to lock myself in my room with my laptop and maybe a bottle of something and I'm not coming out until I get something worthwhile done.....or so I say now. I have no willpower and will probably waste tomorrow away like I do everyday of my life. There are many excuses I can lay on you regarding the way things are but there is only one real cause. Myself. I think I'm defective.

Current Mood: distressed
Current Music: Comfort Eagle

I had another weird dream last night but forgot to write any of it down when I woke up and it was still fresh in my mind. The only part I remember is I was walking out of Denny's and I see Bill Murray sitting in a booth. I freak out a little and shake his hand, then tell him how he's the fucking man. He gets real offended when I ask him for an autograph but somehow I end up sitting across from him for a grip and talking to him about something I can't really remember right now. Damn, I should have written this shit down when I woke up. It was a pretty long and intricate dream involving a fair number of people and places in my everyday life. I know why Bill Murray of all people ended up in my dream though. There was a picture of him in this Life Magazine photography special that was flipping through yesterday. Of all the various images from that book, varying from grotesque to beautiful, Bill Murray wasn't the worst thing my brain could have conjured up to occupy that booth but he certainly wasn't the absolute best. The was a particularly beautiful picture of Marilyn Monroe in that book as well. sigh..... I still didn't know I was dreaming until I woke up wich is getting a little frustrating, but at least I'm having more dreams. They're way more interesting and fulfilling than my life.

I've been reading a book about lucid dreams and lately I've actually been having a lot more dreams. They're not lucid, but they've been pretty vivid and some stuck with me for a day or two but most of what took place in them is lost. I need to start a dream journal like the book says. I'm going to start right now. Goodnite zzzzzzzzzz.....

Current Location: Bed
Current Mood: drained

The deed has been done but I feel like I wussed out slightly by getting a frenum when I had originally wanted an ampalang. It almost didn't even happen. Me, Dom and Kyle were running a little late so we didn't even get to Starship until eight o'clock. I went outside to smoke a cigarette and steel my nerves as Dom filled out his paperwork bs. When I get back in the girl who's always working the counter (who's very adorable btw) tells me Dom's the last customer of the day. All those nerves and tensions that were killing me all day were for nothing and I would have to go through it again on Sunday since that was the next time Devo worked and he's the only person I'd trust with that. Later, when he had finished with Dom, I had a quick little chat with Devo about the piercing I wanted to get and could he squeeze me in despite the fact they were closing up. There was a guy literally mopping arounbd us. It's amazing what $20 can accomplish with the right applications. First a horse and carriage ride on New year's, now this. I'm the happiest guy in the world with a fresh hole through his weiner you're liable to meet today.

Current Location: My house
Current Music: The gentile ambiance of above

It's 4:30 in the morning and I just got home from work which is stellar since I have to be back there at noon. I guess I can add being tired as hell to all the other good shit I'm doing to my body tomorrow. Piercing, hooka bar, dope and debauchery. This weekend is gonna be good times indeed. I finally got the "stapler trick" to work properly today when I stapled a sheet of paper to my arm. For the first time, I got both sides of the staple to go all the way into my arm and it felt wonderful.

Current Location: A mild state of insanity
Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Some Red Hot Chilli Peppers Video on the idiot box

On Friday I plan on going and getting my cock pierced after work. I'm definitely gonna have to track down some skee or a bunch of percs because, despite my threshold for pain, this one may hurt a little too much the first night. If I can't get a hold of anything I'm still going through with it. I expect to be very uncomfortable this weekend but it'll be worth it once it's all healed up. At least I'll always be able to say, "I fucking did that."

ELEMENTS THAT MAKE UP THE HUMAN BODY (In case you ever wondered)

oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, calcium, phosphorus, potassium, sulfur, sodium, chlorine, magnesium, iron, fluorine, zinc, silicon, rubidium, strontium, bromine, lead, copper, aluminum, cadmium, cerium, barium, iodine, tin, titanium, boron, nickel, selenium, chromium, manganese, arsenic, lithium, cesium, mercury, germanium, molybdenum, cobalt, antimony, silver, niobium, zirconium, lanthanum, gallium, tellurium, yttrium, bismuth, thallium, indium, gold, scandium, tantalum, vanadium, thorium, uranium, samarium, beryllium, tungsten

I was more than a little surprised by by the presence of mercury, arsenic, gold and uranium in our bodies. I'm sure the amounts are rather miniscule, but it's still slightly mind-blowing.

Current Location: Bed
Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: Hedwig