And we're doomed to repeat it...

After a particularly pusillanimous, groveling letter from the leadership of Atlanta to stop destroying their city Sherman sent back what must have been a devastating reply. His response to the people of Atlanta seems to capture a much more complex person than I ever came to understand in my US History classes.

You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it; and those who brought war into our country deserve all the curses and maledictions a people can pour out. I know I had no hand in making this, and I know I will make more sacrifices to-day than any of you to secure peace. But you cannot have peace and a division of our country…You deprecate [war’s] horrors, but did not feel them when you sent car-loads of soldiers and ammunition, and moulded shells and shot, to carry war into Kentucky and Tennessee, to desolate the homes of hundreds of thousands of good people who only asked to live in peace at their old homes, and under the Governor of their inheritance. But these comparisons are idle. I want peace, and believe it can only be reached through union and war, and I will ever conduct war with a view to perfect an early success.

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Burn it all down.

I watched Sherman’s March (1986) tonight. I have no idea how this ended up in my queue. I think it was mentioned in a green cine newsletter. A documentary filmmaker sets out to explore William Tecumseh Sherman, the Union general who waged total war on the South’s civilian population.

Instead he spends a lot more time documenting his ailing love life, talking to a number of Southern women, his fear of nuclear holocaust, and trying to get Burt Reynolds on film. At two and a half hours I was a little concerned that this foray into his mostly trivial and mundane life would be tedious. I quite enjoyed it. Luckily he gets some really good characters like his sister (who’s getting plastic surgery), a flirtatious, exercise fanatic wanna-be actor named Pat and an old teacher who desperately wants him to get married. Along the way he takes little breaks to talk about Sherman.

My dogs are barking

I suck. I didn’t make it to Decatur. I made it to the Bethlehem Primitive Baptist Church at 7565 Greenbrier Rd. in Madison, AL and walked up to I-565 to get a ride back. I saw trains every hour and a half. I even hopped on one and rode it for a few seconds imagining a hobo life. I blistered my right pinky toe, and the backs of both heels within the first hour. I guess the Salomon hiking shoes I used still need some breaking in. I saw lots of dead opossum, or at least their bleached skeletal remains. I saw a cool looking copper colored snake. I picked up a plastic bag with envelopes sealed inside labeled “Haz Mat” with other numbers written on it. I think it fell off one of the trains. I saw a little tent village under one overpass next to the tracks. I had diarrhea and forgot to bring toilet paper. I saw lots of grafitti extolling the virtues of being “High Till I Die” or just getting stoned out of your gourd.

Finding Resolve

It's Playtime

Had great fun in the 2004 24 Hour Video Race. We got our short in 9 minutes before the midnight deadline. We had to build a 5 minute or less short film around the following four things: (1) Location: Playground (2) Prop: Ladder (3) Theme: Easy Money and (4) Line of Dialogue: “You can have it.”

I found out last night our video made the finals.

You can download the video [15MB] or the outtakes [15MB]. You may need the 3ivx codec to view it.

Today David and I head

Today David and I head to Dallas for the 24 Hour Video Race. I am very much looking forward to seeing old friends. While I’m there I’m adding a new server to my co-located servers.

Have fun graduating this weekend

Mumbai Dreams

Grabbed a new 802.11g wireless router for the house hoping it would make the new powerbook happier. I have to configure the Internet connection w/new router.

Crap. It didn’t work the first time.

Call up earthlink support to make sure I’ve got the basics right (username, password, pppoe/dhcp/etc.). Wade through the phone tree till I get the choice “1 for Windows, 2 for Mac, 3 for Other.”

Hit 3 hoping I’ll get the more “advanced” support people. I end up talking to “Monica.” (Seems like an odd name for someone with such a strong Indian accent.) I can’t get her to stop reading her support scripts to jump to the basic config info. While she’s stumbling through script I realize I plugged a cable into the wrong port on the router. It works now.

The rash

I was a bit foolish this week and didn’t really take any precautions from the sunlight. I even spent about 45 minutes underneath a cloudy sky eating lunch on Friday. It caught up with me.

Yesterday afternoon on into the evening left my forearms and neck broken out in that old familiar rash. My lips have gotten in on the action too. Although since moving back to Huntsville one part of them seems to be in permablister mode any way. Another new twist is the right side of my face around my eye. This showed up after enduring sandstorms in the Moroccan Sahara. I guess the sand blasting removed some protective layer of skin around my eye. My hands aren’t having any problems. I guess they’ve completed their Spring “molting” from the semi-constant exposure to sunlight.

"Give me your tired, your poor..."

I get up at seven, yeah. Go to work at eight. I got no time for living yeah. I’m working all the time. They call me the Working Man.*

I think this is just a fact of my body. Getting up at 7 in the am has never worked for me. I slept through school. I sleep through work. I just can’t get the amount of rest I need by 7am. I need that extra hour of sleep in the morning. I can go to sleep at 10pm or 1am and still not feel rested with this 7am wake-up time.

Sir, contain yourself

I’ve given up on Huntsville having the movies or DVDs I’m interested in. I’ve accepted the lack of a decent movie theater. (Although the Film Coop’s new monday movie thing is exciting) Half the time I can find the book I’m looking for, but Barnes and Noble is quite expensive. I miss having a quality used book store like Half Price in Dallas.

I’ve accepted Huntsville’s modest offering of locally owned non-BBQ/soul food restaurants. The ones it does have I quite enjoy. I’m resigned to driving/flying to other cities to see the exhibits, artists, or cultural events that interest me since they annoyingly shun Huntsville, AL.