I notified eBay but so far they haven’t done anything.  I’m wondering where in the heck he got hold of these manuscripts … some of them are really old versions, judging by the titles.  There are more up to date copies on my website.  For free.

So … do I really care?

No.  Not really.

Mag+ from Bonnier on Vimeo.

She wanted to know how I was doing.  I told her that all things considered, everything was fine.  Life is good at the moment.  I’m enjoying this time on Earth.

Toward the end of her life I used to call her on my birthday and thank her for bringing me into this world.  She got a kick out of that.  Now that she’s … well, where ever she is … I’m sure she’s still happy that I’m enjoying the life that she gave me.  That I’m making the best of it, and not wasting it.

I miss her.  I hope she’s enjoying the ever-after.  Out enjoying the drifting beauty of the ether, having a Scotch & soda on a infinite veranda overlooking the rivers of Paradise. 

I got my positive nature and cheery disposition directly from her.

Thank you mom.  Turns out to be the best thing anyone has ever given me.

“Citizen journalism is no substitute for the work of trained and experienced reporters,” said David Simon, a former Baltimore Sun writer and the creator of the HBO series “The Wire.” “High-end journalism is a profession,” he testified. “I am offended to think that anyone, anywhere believes that American institutions as insulated, self-preserving, and self-justifying as police departments, school systems, legislatures, and chief executives can be held to [account] …by amateurs, pursuing the task without compensation, training, or for that matter, sufficient standing to make public officials even care to whom it is they are lying or from whom they are withholding information.”  – from Good Morning Silicon Valley

1. Police departments, school systems, legislatures, and chief executives are held accountable by the citizens of this country, not to the press!  This is the most pompous statement I have heard in years, and sums up exactly why “citizens journalism” is needed now more than ever.  Back in 1776 newspapers were run by anyone who bought and operated a press, and that is the “press” that is protected by the US Constitution!  They were “citizen journalists.”  When, tell me, did “the press” become a church with only anointed ones granted this elevated status?
2. This elitist attitude by so-called professional journalists alienates the readers, many of whom are the “citizen journalists” they so despise.  Know Thy Audience, idiots! You don’t keep your readership by insulting them.  All you get is a big fat “F-U” and the loss of readers.
3. Newspapers are not dying because of Google.  Newspapers would be in even worse shape if Google wasn’t sending so much traffic their way!
4. Newspapers are dying because readership is changing and the newspapers are in denial.  Google is handing them business on a silver platter and they’re ignoring it and instead, actually biting the hand that is trying to feed them.
5. If printed journalism is to survive, and it will, it must adapt to the way their readers are coming to them.

Dinosaurs died because the environment changed and they did not.

Those who own the printed news medias need to learn from the dinosaurs, or they will join them.

I knew there was a reason I really liked the enigmatic film “Donnie Darko.”  It turns out writer/director Richard Kelly is a fellow Philip K. Dick fan.  I stumbled across this today in a serendipitous moment whilst searching for something completely unrelated:

First-time writer/director Richard Kelly purposefully wanted “Donnie Darko” to be a genre-busting tale that would mean vastly different things to different people. Kelly offers this explanation of the film, “Maybe it’s the story of Holden Caulfield, resurrected in 1988 by the spirit of Philip K. Dick, who was always spinning yarns about schizophrenia and drug abuse breaking the barriers of space and time. Or it’s a black comedy foreshadowing the impact of the 1988 Presidential election, which is really the best way to explain it. But first and foremost, I wanted the film to be a piece of social satire that needs to be experienced and digested several times.”

This turns out not to be the case. My sleep pattern is totally screwed up.

Oddly, I find the pictures I’m taking here in Helsinki are as distorted as I feel. I figured out why it’s happening, but still, it’s odd.

This is a Scottish folk tune that dates back as far as 1677 (probably earlier) that is sprinkled with old Gaelic, and as far as most people can tell, is about “Old Lang Signs.”

Whatever that means.  No one cares – no one is sober as they sing it.  Right?

Curious, I had to research this, and it turns out the song, in a nutshell, means, “Should we forget old friends?  No.  For as time goes by, we’ll all drink a cup of kindness yet.”  It goes on to sing about even though you may be far away from old friends, at least you’re all in a pub somewhere, drinking to each other at the same time.

In 1677 they didn’t have telephones.  Instead they used widespread synchronized drinking as a sort of telepathic way to reach out to each other.  You sat at a pub and drank to old friends and knew in your heart that at that very second they were doing the same, drinking to you.

So in the spirit of that, at midnight tonight I will be raising a bottle and drinking to all my family and friends.  I wish for you a happy new year!  Let’s defy the doom and gloom news media and make it a wonderful year for everyone.

For the curious, here’s the actual lyrics to the original authentic version of Auld Lang Syne:

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind ?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o’ lang syne ?

CHORUS:
For auld lang syne, my jo,
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

And surely ye’ll be your pint-stowp !
And surely I’ll be mine !
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet,
For auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu’d the gowans fine ;
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot,
Sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS
We twa hae paidl’d i’ the burn,
Frae morning sun till dine ;
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin auld lang syne.

CHORUS
And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere !
And gie’s a hand o’ thine !
And we’ll tak a right gude-willy waught,
For auld lang syne.

CHORUS

Strange to fall asleep before the airplane leaves the ground, to awaken in space, above the clouds, basking in predawn light.

I think morbidly to myself, if one dies before waking, do you stay in your dream?

Has that already happened? To me? To you?

Is this that dream?

Are we dreaming it?

But it also appears we have a real bigfoot specimen to be unveiled this coming Friday at a news conference…

Next I suppose a monster will wash up on the shores of Loch Ness?

UPDATE: The Bigfoot body was a hoax. The chupacabra appears not to be a hoax. Yay for the chupacabra, and boo boo boo to the jackasses and their stupid bigfoot suit filled with roadkill guts.