<P><FONT face=”Times New Roman,Times,Serif” size=4><U>A friend sent this:</U></FONT></P>
<H2><FONT face=”Times New Roman,Times,Serif” size=4>I sat in a movie theater watching “Schindler’s List,” asked myself, “Why didn’t the Jews fight back?”<BR><BR>Now I know why.<BR><BR>I sat in a movie theater, watching “Pearl Harbor” and asked myself, “Why weren’t we prepared?”<BR><BR>Now I know why.<BR><BR>Civilized people cannot fathom, much less predict, the actions of evil people.<BR><BR>On September 11, dozens of capable airplane passengers allowed themselves to be overpowered by a handful of poorly armed terrorists because they did not comprehend the depth of hatred that motivated their captors.<BR><BR>On September 11, thousands of innocent people were murdered because too many Americans naively reject the reality that some nations are dedicated to the dominance of others. Many political pundits, pacifists and media personnel want us to forget the carnage. They say we must focus on the bravery of the rescuers and ignore the cowardice of the killers. They implore us to understand the motivation of the perpetrators. Major television stations have announced they will assist the healing process by not replaying devastating footage of the planes crashing into the Twin Towers.<BR><BR>I will not be manipulated.<BR><BR>I will not pretend to understand.<BR><BR>I will not forget.<BR><BR>I will not forget the liberal media who abused freedom of the press to kick our country when it was vulnerable and hurting.<BR><BR>I will not forget that CBS anchor Dan Rather preceded President Bush’s address to the nation with the snide remark, “No matter how you feel about him, he is still our president.”<BR><BR>I will not forget that ABC TV anchor Peter Jennings questioned President Bush’s motives for not returning immediately to Washington, DC and commented, “We’re all pretty skeptical and cynical about Washington.”<BR><BR>And I will not forget that ABC’s Mark Halperin warned if reporters weren’t informed of every little detail of this war, they aren’t “likely — nor should they be expected — to show deference.”<BR><BR>I will not isolate myself from my fellow Americans by pretending an attack on the USS Cole in Yemen was not an attack on the United States of America.<BR><BR>I will not forget the Clinton administration equipped Islamic terrorists and their supporters with the world’s most sophisticated telecommunications equipment and encryption technology, thereby compromising America’s ability to trace terrorist radio, cell phone, land lines, faxes and modem communications.<BR><BR>I will not be appeased with pointless, quick retaliatory strikes like those perfected by the previous administration.<BR><BR>I will not be comforted by “feel-good, do nothing” regulations like the silly “Have your bags been under your control?” question at the airport.<BR><BR>I will not be influenced by so called,”antiwar demonstrators” who exploit the right of expression to chant anti-American obscenities.<BR><BR>I will not forget the moral victory handed the North Vietnamese by American war protesters who reviled and spat upon the returning soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines.<BR><BR>I will not be softened by the wishful thinking of pacifists who chose reassurance over reality.<BR><BR>I will embrace the wise words of Prime Minister Tony Blair who told Labor Party conference, “They have no moral inhibition on the slaughter of the innocent. If they could have murdered not 7,000 but 70,000, does anyone doubt they would have done so and rejoiced in it?<BR><BR>There is no compromise possible with such people, no meeting of minds, no point of understanding with such terror. Just a choice: defeat it or be defeated by it. &nbsp;And defeat it we must!”<BR><BR>I will force myself to:<BR><BR>-hear the weeping<BR>-feel the helplessness<BR>-imagine the terror<BR>-sense the panic<BR>-smell the burning flesh<BR>- </FONT><FONT face=”Times New Roman,Times,Serif” size=4>experience the loss<BR>- </FONT><FONT face=”Times New Roman,Times,Serif” size=4>remember the hatred.<BR><BR>I sat in a movie theater, watching “Private Ryan” and asked myself, “Where did they find the courage?”</FONT></H2>
<H2><FONT face=”Times New Roman,Times,Serif” size=5><FONT face=”Times New Roman,Times,Serif” size=4>Now I know.<BR><BR>We have no choice. Living without liberty is not living.<BR><BR>– Ed Evans, MGySgt., USMC (Ret.)<BR>Not as lean, Not as mean, But still a Marine.<BR></FONT></H2></FONT>

<P>My year long project at <A href=”http://www.geeknewscentral.com/”>Geek News Central</A> received a nice review yesterday. It’s nice when someone takes the time to look at the content and write a honest assesment. I am by far not a liteary genius those of you that have worked with me are probably laughing and shaking your head yes. But like anything else it is a work in progress.</P>
<P>I am still&nbsp;away from home and&nbsp;staying very busy. But I guess if were not busy I would be bored. My body is recovering from a hard workout at the gym last night. Why does getting in shape have to be so painful..</P>

<P>Have you ever went to bed early and still felt like you havent slept. That’s the mode I am in now it’s weird. But according to a lot of studies people are running around sleep deprived all the time so I am not surprised. I have been going to the Gym every day and I think my body is adjusting and needs time to repair all of those muscles I have not been working out in a while. </P>
<P>At least on this trip I get to talk to the kids and wife every night that helps the lonliness. But I am keeping busy work is consuming 12 hours plus every day like normal. Someday I will find myslef a regular job that pays well and only requires 40 hours a week.</P>

<P>We have all been watching the news and when officials in this country start saying some of the things they have been saying for the past week I think it behooves us to listen. If you haven’t followed the precautions that they have been outlining then I think it would be worth the minimal amount of money outlay to try and protect those you love and care for. God forbid one would have to tape up ones house but the alternative could be death if your not prepared. If it turns out that nothing happens then you will have some duct tape and plastic to use around the house and yard. I bet gas mask will start selling good. If anyone has a good location to buy a military quality gas mask and canister drop us a line. I wonder if you can even buy a quality gas mask on-line.</P>
<P>Keep your eyes open and stay vigilant. <A href=”http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A59412-2003Feb11.html”>Washington Post</A></P>

<P>Well I was able to score&nbsp;a deal and get a short term membership at a Gold’s Gym 2 blocks away from my hotel and I am quite happy about it. Even though I will be putting in some serious hours being on the road without normal dad duties I can find time to hit the gym even if it is late.</P>
<P>I hate eating healthy and the food in this state is fantastic I am sure I will have to eat out a couple of times a week but at least I have a outlet to get rid of the calories after eating this fat and delicious food.</P>

<P>Well here I am at 39,000 feet on an American Airlines Flight headed for Dallas / Ft Worth and having just eaten something that I would not feed my dog I am bit disturbed. My wife is pissed my kids are mad and I’m thristy and need some water. (Dummy me forgot a water bottle) The way they are rationing it you would think it was in short supply.</P>
<P>The 2 weeks I had in Hawaii were not necessarily spent at home I was at work the majority of the time and my kids thought I was gone as they were in bed when I went to work and in bed came home. The weekend I got to spend with them went to quick and when I broke the news that I had to travel&nbsp;again the mood went from fun to reserved. My boy sulked and my daughter&nbsp;is plain mad. Not to mention how the wife feels.</P>
<P>After 5 years of traveling 250+ days per year they have&nbsp;a right to be mad. But duty calls and hopefully this trip will go off as scheduled. </P>

Well first day off in about 4 weeks and I am just relaxing. Kept the kids out of school so we could have some time together. Will take them for shaved ice here in a few minutes. God Bless 80 degree tempatures here in Hawaii.

<P>All of have our favorite magazines. One that I have been reading for about 15 years is going on-line. Hand writting has been on the wall for some time.</P>
<P>Before many of you knew anything about the Internet there was a on-line community that dialed into community Bulletin Board Systems. A little history review is needed before I go into the above headline. I initially launched my dial-up &lt;a href=”<A href=’http://www.bbsnets.com/”>BBS</a’>http://www.bbsnets.com/”&gt;BBS&lt;/a</A>&gt; in 1987 it ran on a Commodore Colt with a 8088 processor with a 47 meg RLL hard drive. It had one of the best modems of the time which maxed out at 2400 bps. At the time I was king of the hill in my community. It had one dial in line and could handle around 250 callers a day. Most called locally but may called from all over the United States. They logged in and stayed a few minutes to download mail/file’s or play a game.. My system was like thousands of other small hobby boards. We featured shareware, forums and on-line games through a text colorized ANSI interface. </P>
<P>My system grew and just prior to the revolution known as the WWW we had 14 dial-up lines running on a several 486 machines using desqview to multitask the command windows via Dos 5.0&nbsp; We had nearly 5000 users of which nearly 500 payed a monthly fee to have access to premium sections of the site. We actually made money :)</P>
<P>This is where Boardwatch magazine comes in. This publication which in it’s hay day had nearly 100 pages of color content. Kept BBS sysops all over the world connected and up to date on the latest happenings and new technologies. We all chased faster connection speeds and craved to learn the more on the latest and greatest software packages, tools, games and resources. </P>
<P>For our primitive beginnings we offered 5 minute delayed stock feeds for free as early as 1990. CNN acknowledges today that there stock feed is 15 minutes delayed isn’t technology grand. We were in effect community AOL’s as many of us offered a large number of services. I was one of the first to offer e-mail when most had no idea what e-mail was.</P>
<P>Companies such as US Robotics, Hayes, 3com owed much of there financial success to Boardwatch and BBS operators. People who dial-up today at 56k can thank BBS Sysops. They were the driving force behind faster modems. Heck the modem companies catered to the BBS Sysop and had special programs in place to entice us to purchase the latest models heavily discounted which in turn fueled our dial-up users to upgrade to the latest standard.</P>
<P>When the WWW revolution hit most small BBS systems folded or went off-line as they failed to go the next step and migrate to the web. I and a number of people I have known for nearly 15 years migrated to the web and our &lt;a href=”<A href=’http://www.bbsnets.com/”>Net’>http://www.bbsnets.com/”&gt;Net</A> based BBS&lt;/a&gt; are still thriving. There were a few bleak years but then people started looking for communities of users again that refrained from spamming and actually could have intelligent conversations in forums. So today &lt;a href=”<A href=’http://www.bbsnets.com/”>BBS’>http://www.bbsnets.com/”&gt;BBS</A> Networks&lt;/a&gt; has nearly 25,000 users.</P>
<P>Well Boardwatch changed it’s BBS focus early into the www revolution and went after the ISP crowd. The ISP owners who subscribed were not so surprisingly were in a large extent Ex-Bulletin Board Operators. The magazine was sold a number of years ago to Penton and the longtime Editor Jack Rickard quit and fell of the face of the earth. Thus the demise of the magazine began. He was the foundation to why that magazine was a success.</P>
<P>Penton changed the format and it has been downhill ever sense. The magazine has been sold again to a company I have never heard of called &lt;a href=”<A href=’http://www.lightreading.com/”>Light’>http://www.lightreading.com/”&gt;Light</A> Reading&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;a href=”<A href=’http://www.boardwatch.com/”>Boardwatch</a’>http://www.boardwatch.com/”&gt;Boardwatch&lt;/a</A>&gt; will now cease being a published magazine and become a net based publication. We will see what happens now but the good ol days are definitely gone. I imagine my collection of Boardwatch magazines that go a long way back will probably be a collectors item someday.</P>
<P>[&lt;a href=”<A href=’http://www.boardwatch.com/”>www.boardwatch.com</a’>http://www.boardwatch.com/”&gt;www.boardwatch.com&lt;/a</A>&gt;]</P>

<P>The last 2 weeks have been very busy for me. With no relief in site I am running on pure emotional power now. Sleep has been an luxury. I am looking forward to sleeping more than 4 hours a day. Not sure when that is going to happen but that’s life I guess.</P>
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<P><STRONG>It is a sad day for America.</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>There is no words that can express my personal feelings and my heart goes out to the families. I had awoken at 5am Hawaiian time to go to work and when I jumped in the car my heart missed a couple of beats when I heard it on the news on the radio.</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>With Columbia lost NASA will have to piece to together what happened. We will be inundated with reports and speculation. I am at a loss for words so I will close with this thought.</STRONG></P>
<P><STRONG>Americans have suffered through many National Losses and we will do as we have always done is pick up and carry on.</STRONG></P>