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2005
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2002
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1966

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NOW

August 18, 2003 - Monday

Red Faces

Last week was difficult for me. A lot going on and I spent most of my time trying to keep my head above water. The oppressive heat was always there as well.  Temperatures consistently over 100.

I started last Monday with the Msblaster virus. I must have been one of the first people to get it and as advertised, it did its job well. It wouldn’t let me on the Microsoft website to update Windows till I did a complete system restore. Annoyingly, while fussing with the problem, Norton Anti Virus keep popping up with messages telling me that I was infected even though it couldn’t correct the problem.

Work is tense because a couple of people in my shop are feuding and the uptight atmosphere really drags out the day. If I had some support from management I’d force the issue and get to the inevitable blow up that is bound to happen. Eventually one or the other of these people will have enough and they’ll clear the air with raised voices and red faces. For now, they’re in that sophomoric “not talking” mode where they try to manipulate each other with the “silent treatment”. Dang!!!!

My websites went down last week because of the power outage back east. Even though I live in Southern Cal., my web server is in that part of Canada that lost power. Not a big deal though some local people like to keep track of my weather page.

Thursday my Dad went into the hospital with pneumonia and he is currently in intensive care on a respirator. He looks terrible though the hospital staff seem optimistic that he will recover. I don’t mean to sound blasé about this but over the past few years my dad has spent a lot of time in ICU. For an 87 year old who smokes and drinks heavily (his entire life) he has great rallying power. This weekend the family gathered and we are now in “watch mode” waiting to see if he turns this corner successfully.

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THEN

July 5, 1967 - Wednesday

Today, after work, I went to the beach with Bill.  Everything was going pretty good until he came up with a plan I just couldn't go along with.  This may shock you but he wanted to go down to Tijuana and spend the night in a whore house.  If you are familiar with T.J. at all you realize this isn't such an outlandish suggestion.  Many kids from our school have done it and since Bill has spent a great deal of time there, he is quite familiar with how it works.  The laws are very flexible in Mexico and at 17 you can go into bars. (In some places, 16)

Anyway, although Bill thinks I'm strange, I'll have nothing to do with it and we actually got into a big argument about it.  My views on sex are somewhat liberal but not to that extreme.  I think there should be something more to sex than handing over a few bucks and jumping into bed.  If I did get involved with a girl there must be something more than mere physical attraction.  I want something more from a girl than just her body.  I feel sorry for people like Bill who have to rely on prostitutes to get pleasure.

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I was reading in "Time" magazine today about the Hippies and I was a bit surprised at how I agree with almost everything they stand for. I've read about them before but this article went into the subject a bit deeper.

If you look back at my notes on June 25 you get a pretty good idea of how I've been feeling lately.  I know it's a bit unbelievable and I didn't see it at the time but my feelings correspond almost exactly to the hippies.

I always had a suspicion that maybe the hippies and I had a bit in common. Today I finally got the straight facts from the "Time" article.

"Time" summed up the hippie code in this way...

(Continued next entry)