"Christianity started out in Palestine as a fellowship. Then it moved to Greece and became a philosophy, then it went to Rome and became an institution, and then it went to Europe and became a government. Finally it came to America where we made it an enterprise." :: Richard Halverson via <a href="http://myvalentine.blogspot.com">myvalentine</a> and very similar to my thing from My New Church pt 2, which is still not up because <a href="http://monkhouse.blogspot.com">Hopkins</a> is being creative now, jeesh :) creative people, now why don't those slakers do something important like interpret scriptures literally 80360136daniel millerSaturday, August 17, 2002publish<a href="http://www.ftrain.com/">A Kick <img src="http://www.ftrain.com/art/graphics/place/bryan.jpg" border="0"></a> The topic of Israel and Palestine is too big, tragic, I can't even begin to scale it; I feel like a fool for even trying to write anything. It needs a Goethe, or a Shakespeare, or a Thomas Mann. Paul Ford just remembers walking around Tel Aviv looking for good falafel and feels bad for Bryan's ribs, and sad, and pissed, always confused. ...and I need to write my friend Nir...i miss u, man... <img src="images/textures/sunset_smaller.jpg"> the beautiful coastline near Tiberius a strip of white and perfect blue where sand hit sea 80359825daniel millerpublishIf anyone "over there" has any <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1869503481/ref=cm_wed_ovu-pg.1-pos.14/103-4102535-4120632?coliid=IFOLVXGYSKRXJ">Riddell</a> <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1869502388/ref=cm_wed_ovu-pg.1-pos.15/103-4102535-4120632?coliid=I35GZ91WB5RP68">fiction</a> I could borrow, that would be great. It's very difficult to get over here....I tried ordering these books last week and the seller on Amazon was not legit or something and the order didn't go through... Now that I'm reading <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1861006918/qid=1029593031/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/103-4102535-4120632">Professional PHP4</a> the NoLogo progress will slow again...but there's not much straight-up reading going on with tech books...of course, now there is <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1861007213/qid=1029593110/sr=2-2/ref=sr_2_2/103-4102535-4120632">a more precise book for what I'm doing</a>, but that's ok... The cul thing is Amazon takes stuff off yer <a href="http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/wishlist/ref=cm_wl_topnav_books/103-4102535-4120632">wish list</a> when u buy it for yourself. Isn't technology great? 80357623daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.btinternet.com/~smallritual/brighton.html"><img src="http://www.btinternet.com/~smallritual/brighton/heaven.jpg" border="0"></a> from <a href="http://www.smallritual.org">small ritual</a> first chance I get to get 15 pounds in my pocket, I'll have to remember I'm in heaven... &euro; &pound; &yen; $ oh yeah 80357224daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.gravattville.com"><img src="http://www.gravattville.com/blogpictures/header2line.jpg" width="400" height="107" border="0"></a> ...just had to snag this image for a day... 80316252daniel millerFriday, August 16, 2002publishGod, please have mercy on our miserable souls... <a href="http://www.latimes.com/la-oe-turley14aug14.story">Camps for Citizens: Ashcroft's Hellish Vision</a> Every generation has its test of principle in which people of good faith can no longer remain silent in the face of authoritarian ambition. If we cannot join together to fight the abomination of American camps, we have already lost what we are defending. 80316057daniel millerpublishlast night at dr. dremo's: WHOOooooo Doggies! Holy crapola muthafawker! <a href="http://www.boboroshi.com/">John</a> played guitar with me and he was amazing; he's got that whole tasteful-licks-don't-play-over-the-singing but play-the-crap-out-of-solos with a little U2 thrown in for good measure. Speaking of U2, I could feel the collective gasp when I <a href="http://artists.mp3s.com/artist_song/2512/2512533.html">sang</a> "Bono is prone to posturing..." but "...bug eyes" kinda lightens it up really quick. :) Anyway, another new friend of mine, Jake, who also happens to be a really fast bicycle racer, also joined me on stage and jammed out on the harmonica...so the open mic turned into this huge jam session...and no suck! Jake had played already and had this thing going with the audience about theme requests...sex and turtles came up but he passed. I, however, could not, so in the middle of my little set, we belted out a little bluegrass number that went something like this: this beautiful lady was lookin' at me / she was lookin' so good, lookin' so green / she invited me under her shell / that sexy turtle really rung my bell (I'm actually pulling these lyrics out of my ass and they're not quite the same ones I pulled out of my ass last night, but they're close.) Anyway, that tune was the biggest hit of my set, methinks. today is Miriam's swearing in ceremony. Her mom flew up from Florida and my parents are driving down from PA right now. So the rest of today will be a wash. Get to see Colin Powell. Miriam already saw him and shook his hand on Wednesday (I think it was Wed), so she's like, "no biggie." :) 80315819daniel millerpublish<a href="http://pbskids.org/dontbuyit/">Don't Buy It | PBS Kids</a> 80296296daniel millerThursday, August 15, 2002publish<a href="http://www.satirewire.com/news/0103/usfirst.shtml">SatireWire | U.S. Suspects World Not Putting U.S. Interests First</a> "In a stinging accusation, the U.S. today charged other nations with taking a narrow-minded "world view" and deliberately failing to consider U.S. economic interests above individual international concerns." 80296229daniel millerpublishcurrently listening: Just Another, by Pete Yorn. If you haven't heard this song on TV or in the movies or on CD, you need to; it's amazing. today: Walked all over DC taking pics just for the fun of it, well, ok, to hopefully get something worthy of a christmas card. Stopped into the national museum of art and spent some QT in an amazing <a href="http://www.nga.gov/exhibitions/exhibits.htm#stieglitz">exhibit of Stieglitz</a>. Motivating. Moving. Enlightening. <img src="http://www.masters-of-photography.com/images/screen/stieglitz/stieglitz_selfportrait.jpg"> Alfred Stieglitz. (1864-1946). in the news: the river Danube is indeed threatening Bratislava, as <a href="http://www.gravattville.com">scott</a> informed us this morning (from CNN): "the European deluge that has killed nearly 100 people is now threatening the Slovak capital of Bratislavia, where the rising Danube has prompted a state of emergency." Miriam's cousin in Bratislava sent photos from the Scoda (owned by VW) warehouses (don't know where these are, but does it matter?!): <img src="images/scoda.jpg"> tonight: open mic, Dr. Dremo's, Arlington. miriam's picking up her mom at the airport right now... tomorrow's the big swearing in ceremony for miriam's FSO class... 80295907daniel millerpublishCurrent <a href="customize.html">color scheme</a>: London, of course. 80237957daniel millerWednesday, August 14, 2002publishThe paradox journals: We have bread with preservatives that turn our bodies into landfills, but if we buy bread without preservatives it goes bad before we can eat it all and it goes into the landfill and the great karmic hunger black hole of the universe... We have boob jobs and nose jobs and fat suctions which dishonest doctors will perform on you for great cost and tremendous pain to your personal physical being, we have people getting silicone poisoning and disfigured as "unfortunate side effects" of these unnecessary procedures, and we have plastic surgery addicts who will never be happy with their body ever, no matter what somebody says or does to it. Then we have makeovers, personal style identification, "appearing your best" and "feeling better about yourself" because you "take care of yourself" ...of which nothing is wrong dammit and it's mostly true... And of course we have TV shows for <a href="http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/personalstory/personalstory.html">each</a> <a href="http://tlc.discovery.com/fansites/makeoverstory/makeoverstory.html">one</a>. 80237567daniel millerpublishLet me know if the new navigation design works in Netscape. 80235105daniel millerpublishIf your faith is so strong, then go where God sucks A Snider: kinda like 'if god sucks why bother?' A Snider: and of course we don't know anyone like u guys down here where we can just say that and u know what we mean A Snider: i meant up here :) Sparkle Motion: you will soon Sparkle Motion: but i don't know about bosnia :-) Sparkle Motion: j/k A Snider: :) A Snider: probly more there right? A Snider: god sucks more there A Snider: ALOT more 80233762daniel millerpublishScenes from an ordinary, elevated life: There's 5 of us. The fat and strangely beautiful woman in rough, turquoise fabrics asks "What floor?" "14" I say as I slunk into the corner. The couple next to speaks about something very important. Guy in the far corner has very large headphones and is reading Rolling Stone. In the face of humanity you will never have it figured out. 80233718daniel millerpublishD: "Hi my name is Daniel and I've been broadband-free for 6 weeks." BA: "Hi, Daniel!" 80232790daniel millerpublishSpeaking of identity: <a href="http://www.cnn.com/2002/TECH/industry/08/13/human.branding.ap/index.html">Forfeit your identity, sell a video game</a>. "Hoping to push back the frontiers of advertising, a British marketing firm said Monday it would pay nearly $800 each to five people for the right to transform them into human billboards for a fantasy superhero. "It's not a gimmick ... Every form of their identity will have to change for this to work," said Acclaim spokesman Andrew Bloch. "They'll be walking, talking, living, breathing advertisements."" via <a href="http://gravattville.com">gravattville</a>, which also has this gem today: plus it's art, so ... i have to actually like it 80232417daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/javascript/2002/08/12/megnut.html">Blogging for Dollars: Giving Rise to the Professional Blogger</a>: If <a href="http://www.andrewsullivan.com/">Andrew Sullivan</a> makes $6K/month he can throw a few of those clams my fawking way! But this says something more about our culture: the homosexual culture is doing a better job at supporting their own than other cultures (church culture being my obvious target here). Possibly because they have no formal structures to support, they are free to support real people doing real work for their community. Not just that, but I suspect a culture of non-judgement (such as gay culture) is better able to support independent thinkers working in a new medium. It is really dawning on me that the church is an entirely consumeristic culture, and not only is that sin, but that will keep it from being particpant to a great shift in our society--that away from consumerism and consumer-based identity. Funny I thought Jesus was all about identity in the first place. Guess not. The upcoming My New Church part 2 in August <a href="http://www.next-wave.org/">next-wave</a> kinda gets to that, but there's definately more yet to come...<center>Rome left us the idea of man as God. America is leaving us the idea of brand as God. The church is leaving us the idea of man�s God-brand as God.</center> 80231130daniel millerpublish<img src="http://www.cyclingnews.com/photos/2002/aug02/nyc/JDfinish_1_s2.jpg" align="left">It's been 9 days since, but I finally caught the tail end of the NYC Cycling Champ. on <a href="http://olntv.com">OLN</a> just now. Cuba/Florida boy Dominguez <a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2002/aug02/nyccc02/?id=results">won</a>. Pretty cul. Also Jalabert <a href="http://www.cyclingnews.com/road/2002/worldcup02/sansebastian02/?id=results">won San Sebatian</a>, a race that has been particularly good to <a href="http://www.lancearmstrong.com/">Lance</a> in the past (before he was winning <a href="http://www.letour.fr/">a different race a little earlier in the season</a>). But it's nice to see our man-soon-to-be-retired winning big ones on his way out. 80191865daniel millerTuesday, August 13, 2002publish<a href="http://www.0xdeadbeef.com/projects/pride_and_grief_for_sale/">More of what's wrong with our little world.</a> 80188439daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.blogroots.com/comments.blog/123">hmmmmm...</a> 80188348daniel millerpublishfrom <a href="http://www.johnheronproject.btinternet.co.uk/">JHP</a>: "Jeff's Guide to the Evil One-World Government Conspiracy #1: Since today is Wood's wedding anniversary and he's indisposed, I thought it a good time to start my series on the evil conspiracies that run this world. "How do I know this stuff? Because I'm in on it. Yes, that's right. I'm a member of Bilderberg, the Freemasons, Bohemian Grove, the New World Order and the Dennis the Menace Fan Club. "Why am I telling you this? Because it doesn't matter what you know. I'm already running things, and you can't do anything about it. "For example, I was responsible for the institution of Tony Blair's Infallible Difficult Issues Decision Mechanism. What is Tony's Infallible Difficult Issues Decision Mechanism, I hear you ask? "Well, basically, it simply means that all difficult decisions are made in a secret room in Whitehall. An occult circle is drawn on the floor and bisected; breadcrumbs are scattered over it. "A mallard duck named Graham is then brought in. Which section of the circle will Graham waddle to? Will he eat the breadcrumbs there or there? How many breadcrumbs will he eat? "Infinitely subtle, I'm sure you'll agree. George asked me if he could use the IDIDM as well, but I'm not sure. After all, Graham's a busy duck." 80187457daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~bosnia/">http://www.cco.caltech.edu/~bosnia/</a> ...this seems like a good place to start for online info about BiH. 80166853daniel millerMonday, August 12, 2002publish<img height="120" hspace="5" vspace="0" alt="Flooded road in Austria" width="100" border="0" src="http://news.bbc.co.uk/media/images/38192000/jpg/_38192959_afp100austria.jpg" align="left">Good of the US news to cover this: river Danube, which runs through major central European countries (including marking the border between Austria and Slovakia, right next to Bratislava), is heavily flooded. <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/2189695.stm">BBC: Prague evacuation as floods threaten</a>. Not only that, we have close family and friends in Czech Rep. who live right on another minor river, which has seriously flooded in the past (they were stuck on the second floor of their house for days). Suddenly nervous for them... 80166243daniel millerpublishsome interesting tidbits from my current read <a href="http://www.nologo.org">NoLogo</a>...this book is short on soundbites and high on dense content, but these popped out at me: "There is no question that many young people have compensated for the fact that they don't trust politicians or corporations by adopting the social-Darwinist values of the system that engendered their insecurity: they will be greedier, tougher, more focused. They will Just Do It. But what of those who didn't go the MBA route, who don't want to be the next Bill Gates or Richard Branson? Why should they stay invested in the economic goals of corporations that have so actively divested them? What is the incentive to be loyal to a sector that has bombarded them, for their entire adult life, with a single message: Don't count on us? ... "But for some--particularly younger workers--there is a silver lining. Because young people tend not to see the place where they work as an extension of their souls, they have, in some cases, found freedom in knowing they will never suffer the kind of heart-wrenching betrayals their parents did. For almost everyone who has entered the job market in the past decade, unemployment is a known quantity, as is self-generated and erratic work. In addition, losing one's job is much less frightening when getting it creates its own kind of worker divestment--divestment of the very notion of total dependency on stable work. We may begin to wonder whether we should even want the same job for our whole lives, and, more important, why we should depend on the twists and turns of large institutions for our sense of self. "This slow divestment by corporate culture has implications that reach far beyond the psychology of the individual: a population of skilled workers who don't see themselves as corporate lifers could lead to a renaissance in creativity and a revitalization of civic life, two very hopeful prospects. One thing is certain: it is already leading to a new kind of anticorporate politics..." 80165899daniel millerpublishalso via theyblinked...this is interesting...things are changing... <a href="http://creativecommons.org/">http://creativecommons.org/</a> 80165299daniel millerpublishI didn't say it, <a href="http://theyblinked.blogspot.com">he did</a>: why is the USoA so flippantly spouting off words like "regime change?" does the dubya administration not get the significance of these words? no one likes sadam. not even his kids. that is not the point. the point is arrogance, ignorance and presumption... the USoA is no good at regime change. plain and simple. even if they did not have the track record that they do the posture that regime change requires is pedantic at best and downright totalitarian (on a global scale) at worst. 80164554daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.aboutcoffee.net/index.html">It's All About Coffee</a> Surprisingly good blog all about coffee... 80133551daniel millerpublish<a href="http://www.jordoncooper.com/">jordoncooper.com weblog</a> A couple of minutes ago we all watched some high speed chases on TLC. We watched a motorcycle hit a bus at about 100 miles an hour. It was horrible but strangely compelling television. Funny thing is, I watched that same show last night on TLC. 80132936daniel millerpublishCalendars are amazing things. They know the difference between the 23-26th and the 29-30th. Unlike some humans. 80109157daniel millerSunday, August 11, 2002publishBig news: <a onclick="javascript:alert('I am going to Greenbelt.');" style="cursor: hand;">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</a> 80109063daniel millerpublish