Fat Pipe Jazz

I'm Slackware. What are you?

I'm not really big on magazine "Find how you..." type quizzes and such, but this has a geeky kind of coolness to it for those into such stuff. Who knew I run on Linux. I definitely feel better about myself than if it had come out Windows 95. So, what OS are you?

The bug

There's a business here in town that restores old Volkswagen Beetles from the ground up. My first car, back when I graduated from high school, was a bug exactly like this one. I've seen several of the restorations around town, and I've stopped by the lot and checked them out, and they really do a good job - the cars look showroom new. It's been awhile since I had the new car bug. Hell, I got my Talon in 96, I could rationalize that I'm due. I'm starting to think I'd like a Beetle for boppin around town in. There would be something satisfyingly anachronistic about driving such a mechanical contraption in this day of computers and wireless and 21st century modernity.

Another Bug
And now for something completely different... The real world fact of magazine lead time is driving me nuts. I had the Over the Counter site up and ready for the public in early December, and here it is the middle of February and it's still sitting there, unsullied by web traffic. I felt I had to have it workable before I started promoting it in the column, but the column I wrote in December announcing the site ends up in the pipeline for placement in the March issue, which hits the stands late February. I'm feeling the site is old enough it's getting ready for a face lift and no one's even seen it yet!

Tension

For the last week or two, the fighter jets from up at Malmstrom Air Force Base have been flying training missions, and it seems at least once a day, they make a pass over Billings as they head south, and another one as they head back north to home. While they get their practice hours in to prep for Iraq, it makes me very aware on a daily basis of our change in national demeanor. The US is going to be an agressor nation this time around. We are going to attack another country. The roar of the jets also makes me think what it must be like to be an everyday Joe Civilian, living in a country under attack, feeling the terror that accompanies those sounds everytime they arrive. Saddam is an evil asshole, but I doubt he's the one that we're going to kill when we start bombing.

Anyway, I've been very aware of the jets and all they represent when the Columbia disintegrated and made us all aware of fragility of some of our technology. I think too many Americans feel a war with Iraq is going to be another sterile, sit-back-and-watch-the-video-game experience where nobody but the bad guys get killed. I don't think they comprehend the repercussions and the likelihood that something like the World Trade Center event could happen again. The Columbia is an unrelated event, but I would hope if there is any good to come of such a tragedy, it would be that it makes folks reflect on the sadness of death and disaster, and the possibility of finding some other resolution to the current world situation besides fanning the fire and making the world choose up sides for a fight.