I wanted to say Happy New Year! 2002 should be great.

Say hello to my new Niece!

Another great thing I learned about from the Captain: a great online comic called When I am King!

Happy Holidays!

and it came to pass... that my brother Drew and his wife Kelly in the city of Chicago on the 22nd day of December in the late afternoon/early evening delivered into this world something beautiful. A 7 pound baby girl, now named Molly Ann McElligott with formidable McElligott/Kriegman & Hayes/??(oops!) family genes. She will be incredible, I am sure. Of course first they have to name her. But I hear that's pretty high on the agenda. Congrats to the three of 'em, and to all the family who now move up a level, great-wise, etc. I'm pretty psyched about being an unkl, as you might imagine.

image by 6 from years ago

Hi. me's been quiet for a while. Resting up after the big Sessions thing. Getting holi-daze-ical. Now, as I'll post in a second, there's some big news from my family.

The PARTY was a huge howling neato success. All of the performers were incredible. We raised some cash, and we still have prize packs available on the site so we can raise more money and YOU can get art from past Sessions artists for a great prize. Plus one of our cool tshirts! Here's the front! I'll put an image of the back up pretty soon. But it incorporates all of our past artists!

Okay, enuf of that stuff--except to say that the next Session is coming soon and will be of a lot of interested to old Wired types--and on to more important things! Like NEW LIVES!

oh, hey the onion has onion.com now (it used to
just be theonion.com) is that recent? gawd, how
long was I typing 3 unnecessary characters?! I hate that! what? oh, okay. sorry. I'll shut up.

it's Tom Waits' birthday!!

The comics page has bite.

I'm recommending this to everyone this week, keep an eye on Doonesbury which, as always, is a voice of dissent in the face of political hypocrisy. And checkout Boondocks which has been around for four years (not 30 like Trudeau's strip) and is also making great use of our guaranteed right to ask impolite questions. In a time when those rights are sometimes threatened (hint: do a FIND on "watch what they say", this happens to be the top result on Google for that search--which means that a lot of other people are linking to it using that phrase) by the mindset, policies & actions of the current administration. I salute the courage & backbone of both Aaron McGruder and Gary Trudeau in the face of the backlash for people speaking their minds.

European countries are concerned about the military tribunal issue, perhaps more than the average US citizen. They may not extradite accussed terrorists if there is no guarantee of them getting a non-secret trial (and that could be the strongest challenge that this policy will get). But will they refuse when the request actually comes?

There is something about cleaning all the dust out of an old computer that is oddly enjoyable.
I mean one that is REALLY full of dust/never been cleaned/bunnies in every nook. Something cathartic, rewarding, even noble about completing the task. Especially when the compressed air runs out and you start doing it all with yer own lungs.
Or maybe that's the headrush talking.

Another article off my usual path, from the NYT, artifacts discovered in South Africa shows evidence of "Modern Man" (as opposed to Modern Art) 20,000-30,000 years earlier than previously had been thought. There are signs of tools made from bone, not stone, which show signs of aesthetic concern or at least not strictly utilitarian. "Symbolic thought" they call it. The bottom line, summed up in the final sentence of the article, This puts the behavioral evolution in step with the anatomical evolution. Maybe it also signals the crumbling of a pillar of euro-centrism. The previous theory that has dominated for however long is that humans migrated from Africa and a "creative explosion" followed--wham! a burst of evolution, unprecedented! And unlikely, one would think; it seems, objectively, a shaky theory not only for the anomaly of evolutionary speed, but also because there was little archeology in Africa conducted on that era. Yet the creative explosion theory is entrenched and resisted African discoveries almost a decade ago on the basis that the artifacts may have been from more recent times and somehow got into older layers of earth through erosion or the action of burrowing animals.

I can't help but detect a racist aspect in that mindset (it also reminds me of the rationalizations of Scientific Creationism and its adaptive descendant Intelligent Design *shudder* ), racism of the type which is historically inherited and easier to excuse away, but that makes it no easier to bear, and it is the infrastructure on which contemporary cruelty can be justified. You can get logic to take you anywhere you want, if you know how to bend the information at the top. I think I'm ranting. But it's worth it to occasionally mention out loud that racism exists, not just in a few that are dedicated to that cause, but in subtle ways like this, which are propagated in the educational system and strong first impressions on those who are or aren't of African descent. I guess I should sum this up with "we're all a family" or something; we're all the same animal at least. People with darker skins just seem to have gotten smarter first.

Jordan Rules Are Being Rewritten (washingtonpost.com)

I don't spend much time sports fanning these days--though in my youth I was rabid & in particular in regards to stats for all the major sports, calculating the changes in Slugging Percentage due to late night games that the editors of the paper hadn't had time to add to the leaders board. But this article in the Washington Post is a fascinating read. It's subject is a pulp-fiction worthy tale: the greatest basketball player of all time returns from his second retirement to lead & inspire a young team. Only it hasn't been working out storybook, as this article details. And the details are indeed intimate, which is just the kind that really appeal in a workstyles of the Rich & Famous motif like this which inspires borderline-tabloid rubber-necking interest even from reformed sports fans like me. On-court & locker room conversations pepper it as does insightful analysis of what is making Michael tick. The pulp sports story would assume that with some of the best instincts & experience in the game's history, with accomplishments that inspire awe in teammates & foes alike, not to mention resources on an order to give Steve Austin trainer-envy, the mere limits of the flesh & mortality oughtn't impede the spirit of a champion from rising to the pinnacle yet again. The reality is more human.

It is the morning after the Attaboy show (officially, it feels like the extension of the night of it to me, but I quibble...). It was a whaleshell-sized amount of fun, an impressive turnout, and an excellent show! Not without a couple of technical divots, mind you, but I think that chaos & glitches are just woven into the asbestos of Los Odeon and there's no way it won't get into yer lungs and opening monolouge, or whatever, if you set tremulous foot within its sticky confines. That said, it's also beautiful. It was a great crowd, and it was I think a testament to the fact that there is a tremendous amount of enthusiasm for the work and personality of the man they call Attaboy. Long may the Yumfactory churn! Attaboy has a ton of the books still for sale as well as stickers and other stuff which make hella better xmas prezents than HelloKitty or OldNavy. GoHere to find out how to get it!