The following is my opinion on the topic of the moment. You are not obligated to support or even read it. If you find yourself getting offended you may click the back button, your home page button, a favorites link, or the 'X' in the top right corner. You are not trapped here so if you do get upset or enraged you have no one to blame but yourself. op-ed January 9 2001: (A Tripod Webmaster's Christmas)
Well, here we are, in a new year. Happy New Years, everybody.
OK, that's out of the way. Now, on with the show. Here is the latest op-ed. I'm sorry to say, it is directed at my very own host, Tripod, (see link on home page since this builder thing won't let me add links in-line.)
I have been on Tripod not that long but I have been on this planet long enough to have an idea of what's going on. I have a few sites on Tripod which I try to keep in a state of flux. It's a lot of work and very time consuming. I must add that since I intend to make no money from this endevor and only do it for the benefit of a few of my friends and any one else who stumbles across this site, the public at large, the additions that I make to the sites and the little feedback that I get is my only reward. I do enjoy it. It is fun to try to come up with things to put up and then try to figure out how to make them or where to find them.
It is also not my policy to complain about something that is given to me for Free.
However, I feel that I must vent somehow and this is my chosen venue.
Thus, the story begins. Shortly before Thanksgiving 2000 I started getting my sites holiday compliant. I put up Thanksgiving decorations on most of my sites. Some were sent to me and some I found. I had a great time. They looked good. Thanksgiving came and went and I started adding Christmas decorations to my sites. Once again, I had a great time and they looked good. However, a couple of days before Christmas I was no longer able to make changes to my .html sites (of which this is not one). Nor was I able to take down my Thanksgiving decorations, thus making my sites look neglected and sloppy. I continued to work on my sitebuilder sites and make them Christmas ready. Once again, I had a good time. I would have liked to change all my sites but it's the holidays and the engineers are probably off for the holidays. Well, oh my, the day before Christmas all my sites were locked out. I could'nt change anything! Well, once again, the engineers must be off for the holidays. Christmas came and went. The builder sites came back up. They are, however, limited as to what you can add to the pages. That's why I learned some html. New Years was coming. I sent an email (not email as we know it but a block that you have to fill in) to Tripod describing my woes. (Errors when I try to manage the files in file manager). Alas, no reply was forthcoming and still no joy on the html sites. New Years Eve, nada. I had some great fireworks to add but nope, twas not meant to be. New Years came and went. I spent it shopping for a new server. I spent the next weekend looking too. I tried a couple but they did not meet my needs (catering to idiots). I signed up for fortunecities and wasted a few hours before I resigned. I tried MSN communities. I have'nt figured out how to resign from them yet. I then signed up for Geocities. This one is not bad. Pretty similar to Tripod filemanager. I copied one of my sites over there. Still it's different from what I was used to. Then I had an idea. Want to know what it was? OK, I thought so. I started a new account on Tripod. Yup, just put up a new name and I'm in again. I have copied all my .html sites over (see the 'Links' page) but how to swap the builder sites? There I'm hung. Ironic, is'nt it? I start the new account because I can't edit the html files and now I can't figure out how to copy over the sites that were working. I would laugh but I'm too busy. Well, life's rough and I know that but today I get an email from Tripod. It was about the 'temporary interruption error'. Well, this one is a fact of life at tripod and I just ignore it. You have to redo a lot of work sometimes but it's not too often unless you're typing a long op-ed column (save it to notepad before clicking 'Done'). They even included a copy of my email which said nothing about 'temporary interuption' and said their engineers were working on the problem. Keep in mind, this has been over 2 weeks and over a week since I emailed them which explains why they say that the problem will probably be cleared up by the time they respond. Sure thing. Well, once again, life is a tough business and I will press on having already figured out a partial solution. Though I am somewhat upset about the whole affair, I resolve to work around it and press on but.... There's always a but. I happened to go to the sitebuilder site today under my new alias and I found out what they have been working on over the holidays. Instead of fixing my file manager, they have been working on this geek dude and his fancy sitebuilder sign in screen. Oh my. Well, life is rough and I don't complain about free stuff.
_________________________________ Notice to P.E.T.A.: It's Thanksgiving and I invite all PETA fanatics over to my place for turkey. I might even have some endangered spiecies on the grill if the Greenpeace and the Sierra club drop by. Bon apitete. OP-ED 8 OCT 2000: (amended, see below)
Hello again. It's time for another Op-Ed.
The topic I've chosen this time is P.E.T.A. People for Ethical Treatment of Animals. Apparantly, people don't matter to them. These are the wackos that go around throwing red paint on fur wearers and throwing pies at executives of the meat industry and then screeching some bit of their mantra before being carted off. Well, dear me. I'd like to know where these folks get off doing these kinds of things to somebody who disagrees with their OPINION. Yes, it's just their opinion that the rest of us should'nt eat meat. We should'nt fish or hunt or do anything that disturbs the little critters. They also say we should'nt drink milk.
Personally, I don't hunt. I will scarf down a burger or steak. I don't fish much and when I do I always let them go. I like to eat fish too. I'm not a big fan of chicken but I've been known to eat it from time to time. And I always have milk on cereal.
This puts me on the PETA bad guys list. Shame on me. I should be eating lettuce, celery and other assorted shrubbery. I doubt the plants would agree.
I think everybody should drink beer every day. The world would be a better place and everybody would be more relaxed and easier to get along with. This would also get everybody off of this skinny mania that is so popular today. That's my OPINION. Does this give me the right to go around throwing beer on everyone who does'nt choose to drink beer? No, it does not. I have to conform to societies accepted behavioral standards like everybody else. I'm not allowed to harrass and assault poeple who disagree with me. They are entitled to their opinions.
Apparantly, the wackos of PETA have gotten the idea that they are above the rules of society because they have gotten a little press and a few wacko celebs on their side. Like Bill Maher, who is doing the anti milk ads. I knew there was a reason I did'nt like that guy. Maybe I should go throw beer on him? No, I can't do that. See PETA? It's not allowed. That's not hard to understand.
When are we going to quit bowing to these weirdos just because the news media says we should? Grind up a cow today to show you care. And don't waste beer pouring it on those PETA losers. I say grab a burger and a beer and just say NO to PETA.
By the way I recommend the fajita PETA (sic).
amendment: 30 Oct 00
VEGETARIAN FOODS APPEAR ON PRISON MENUS
I heard about this a few days ago but confirmation came from the PETA site itself. The courts have ruled that the Bureau of Prisons must provide a vegitarian diet for prisoners. Guess who pays for this special diet for convicts. Yup, you and I. Thanks to a suit brought by a prisoner named Keith Maydak who supposedly 'is morally opposed to killing animals for food and adheres to a completely animal-free diet'. I'd love to know what he's in for.
Washington -- Now on the menu at a federal prison near you: Tofu marinara, veggie burgers, braised tofu, and vegetarian "chicken" and "meatballs." All are part of the Bureau of Prison's new "No-Flesh Alternative" program, which makes vegan food available to all federal prisoners at every meal. Oh well.
Still, my favorite part of the article is a quote from some PETA mouthpiece. Says PETA's Bruce Friedrich. "It should help us all sleep a little better to know we're taking away violent criminals' taste for blood." Now that's funny. Just shows that too much vegetables will rot your mind. Update 16 Nov 00: This was just too good to ignore... From the pages of The Darwin Awards: Two animal rights activists were protesting the cruelty of sending pigs to a slaughterhouse in Bonn by freeing a captive herd. Suddenly all two thousand of pigs stampeded through the gate they were opening, and trampled the hapless protesters to death.
For a good time call: P.E.T.A The Darin Awards. _________________________ Well, what do ya know. I got a reply to the op-ed. Very cool. Ok, it's from a friend of mine but maybe it will start a trend. Who knows? LETTERS! Hmm, maybe Captain Weasel needs to take a look at this. |
