DEATH OF A DEAR FREIND
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I just got back from nine fantastic days of sailing to get an email informing me of one of my dear friend Sam's passing away. I will not be back in time for the funeral service, which is hard to take. But I will pull the motorcycle over for an hour on Sunday, no matter where I am, and spend some time thining about Sam.

Sam was one of the main people that got me to ride motorcycles. I went on one trip with him and Dan (his best freind and a godo freind of mine), and wanted to go on more. I used to have the time of my life with those two clowns. Sam's road name was Sam "RoadKill" Scribner, Dan's was "RoadBunny" and mine was "RoadStud".

People always say that death of a loved one is a reminder from God to appreciate the life we have. In this case, no words with more truth were ever spoken. Sam appreciatede life, and made it more funny than anyone I ever knew. He inspired me a great deal, of more thigns than I can think of.

He was fighting cancer, which he had already beaten decades ago, and it got the better of him. It was quicker than anyone imagined. Dan said that nobody is more surprised at his death than probably Sam himself. I can just see the look of surprise on his face as he floats on up.

Below is Sam's Obituary, and I cannot think of a better one for him. He would have been a great pirate! YAR!!

SCRIBNER, Sam A. - Long time resident of San Francisco died peacefully of cancer on July 17, 2003 amongst family and friends in Santa Rosa. Sam was a screen-writing teacher, national lecturer, and a entor to many. Sam's passion was writing off beat stories with quirky character development, which culminated in two feature films to his credit, "Delta Heat" and "Criminal Mind". Sam died while in the process of writing a book entitled "I can write a better screen play than that: and how to do it from a barca lounger." Sam was a mischievous sort who would have made a perfect pirate. He lived his life creatively, enthusiastically and with a sense of prankish adventure. Sam will be most remembered for his wit and humor. Services will be held at the Abby Chapel of the Redwoods Mortuary, 6250 State Farm Dr., Rohnert Park, 707-584 7100 Sunday, July 27,2003 at 3PM.

OUT OF TOWN TIP
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Thanks for the e-mail. I will be out of town Saturday July 13th to sometime around Tuesday July 28th.

I'll be spending 4 days on the motorcycle (riding up to Vancouver, BC) and then 9 days on a sailboat (with a good friend and some hot women) and then another 4 days on the bike (coming home to SF). So I won't be answering email (except very sporadically) and rarely answering the cell phone.

So there will not be any blog entries until I get back, except maybe one or two from the road. But I'm sure you'll see some of my more interesting adventures immortalized here (for your amusement) on "Crazy Dreaming and Unemployed".

Until then, have a great one!!! :-)

Easy T

SOMEONE TO VOTE FOR:
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Wanna vote for someone interesting? Vote for Springer in 2004. Check out the CNN artivle here..

Just imagine what the U.S. Senate would look like with this guy on the floor...

Those of you in Ohio, vote Democrat! Vote Spinger! (You guys already had him as the mayor of Cincinati!!)

INTERESTING SITE
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Wanna see an unusual site? Do you remember Cynthia Plaster Caster, a woman that was known as the ultimate rock and roll groupie that took plaster casts of all the penises of the rock stars she slept with. Well, here is her official site. Click here. Scroll to the bottom and click on the entrance to the site, then watch the interesting intro... Try the tabs on the side. They have roll over text like you've never seen... Bizarre!

TELEVISION: the medium that makes relativity understandable
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The concept of relativity with multiple dimensions, multiple universes and different ways to view the same thing is actualized in our world with the television set. This comes not just from the ability to change channels and watch something totally different, but form the ability of filmmakers to take a story and easily jump from time frame to time frame, place to place and even universe to universe while maintaining a continuous thread of meaning throughout (read: the storyline).

Think about it, the jarring changes that audiences may not have been able to follow when movies and TV first came out, now we can easily conceive the concept of moving from place to place, time frame to time frame, even universe to universe very easily. Could you imagine someone from the 1800s, with a mind that has never experieinced a TV show or a film, understanding such concepts with ease? Not likely.

Do most people really understand the concept on an intellectual level? Some do, but seeing this represented in TV every day helps a great deal. It makes it intuitive and understandable in a very real sense so that moving from an intuitive level of understanding to an intellectual level of understanding is significantly easier.

So perhaps watching TV is indeed not the waste of time that many people think it is. Perhaps it is mental training for understanding, on an intuitive level, the concepts of relativity as we move into an age of post-Newtonian physics. Let the kids stay up and watch TV, they will need those nerual pathways in the years to come...

WHY SHOULD I CARE?
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During this lovely 4th of July long weekend, I was enjoying a margarita at a family bar-b-q, entertaining one of our gests from the mid-west. We started talking politics and she asked the inevitable question that so many people in this country ask. She said, "I know all this horrible stuff is going on in our world, like the problems in Liberia, but what difference does it make to my everyday life? Why should I care?".

Let's put the metaphysical moral issues and concentrate on the immediate physical realities of the globalized world we live in. With porous borders, free trade, air travel, and fast flowing information our world is getting smaller and smaller. It is taken for granted these days that what happens in one area greatly effects another. Now more than ever the effects of one country's problems are seen in the regions, even around the world.

How do these problems end up on our streets? In at least three major manners: terrorism, drug trafficking and disease. Currently, the government of the United States is engaged in two official wars that are inwardly turned: the "War on Terror" and the "War on Drugs". As well, the government is engaged in a struggle to contain the disease AIDS. We are not far off from a "War on AIDS"; perhaps if the Republicans were interested, this is what it would be called. Even though these three problems have significant home grown elements, it is clear that there major components of these "Wars" that originate from outside the USA.

In the most dramatic of senses, the "War on Terror" started with the horrific events of 9/11. And this more than anything made it abundantly clear, that what is wrong in other countries will impact everyday life in the United State. Failed states (like in Afghanistan), human rights abuses (as in Saudi Arabia) and economic underdevelopment abroad (such as just about anywhere in the Middle East) directly contributed to making conditions where terrorists can flourish and the reasons that terrorists site for their causes.

Daily we see the effects of the "War on Drugs" take its toll on our city streets. Crack Houses, gang wars, drive by shootings, terrible car accidents involving narcotics, needles in city parks all effect our every day lives. As well we have massive expenditures on law enforcement and many good people that fall victim to drug addictions and their lives are ruined by a punitive legal system. Much of the drugs that fuel this problem come from South America, Asia and Africa, funneled through Canada, Mexico and EU countries. Once again, lawlessness, lack of development, failed states, civil war, gross human rights abuses all contribute to making an environment abroad where the manufacture of dangerous drugs is the only method for social mobility.

Finally, the AIDS epidemic has been the worst health issue of the modern era, and it's spreading in the developing world. George W. Bush has all but declared his own "War on AIDS" in Africa with the $15 billion assitance package he has proposed. Once again, all the conditions listed above, especially an essentially non-existent health care system in developing countries makes conditions where diseases can spread. Some people (read: the few well to do people) in those countries can easily jump a plane and land in JFK airport, take the train to Grand Central Station and then ride the metro to their hotel. What if they have a violently infectious disease?

So there are three big reasons why we should care about far off places. Our world is just too small and too interconnected for us to be able to isolate a problem and say it does not effect our everyday lives. Should my friend care about what happens in Liberia? Damn straight. Because maybe a new Liberian terrorist organization will use the drug trade to finance their biological attack on the United States, by sending some of their members who are infected by a violent disease on to our city streets. I think caring is appropriate.

POEM TIP OF THE DAY: "Love" by R. Buckminster Fuller
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This is great poem that I heard at the Buckminster Fuller show (see a below posting for more info). The elegance and compactness of meaning man's words really moved me. I thought you might enjoy it.

LOVE

Love
Is omni-inclusive,
Progressively exquisite,
Understanding and tender
And compassionately attuned to other than self.
While humans may never
Know God directly
They may have and do
Palpitatingly hover
Now towards, now away,
And some in totality
Come closer to God.

R. Buckminster Fuller

AWARENESS TIP OF THE DAY: Government Information Awareness
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In reaction to the efforts by the government to track our every moves though John Poindexter's Total Information Awareness, a couple brilliant guys at MIT decided that turnabout is fair play. Take a look at this article.

Now you can all the information you want about any elected or appointed official, past or present at the touch of a button. Now you can easily track their movements, track the patterns of their activity and assess whether or not they pose a threat to the good of the United States of America. It's all protected under the First Amendment - use it.

SHOW TIP OF THE DAY: R. Buckminster Fuller: The History (and Mystery) of the Universe
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This is a very enjoyable one man show, that will entertain you with his narrative and stimulate you with his insights into the He tells you his own interesting life story from his time in the US Navy in World War One to his interview with Einstein.

You can get tickets here or use this link:
http://www.foghouse.com

It's a surprisingly emotional show, that re-enforces that there is hope for humanity, that reminds us that we have the power to make this world a utopia. All we need is the will to do so.

The show is only scheduled for another five days at the Theater Artaud. If they get more bookings, they may be able to run longer.

Hope
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So where is hope going to come from in the new millennium? Will it come from the good will of the American people? Or might it come from somewhere else? Perhaps from the EU. While they may be a bunch of old fuddy duddies, they do take care of their people in a very civilized manner.

Take a look at this article from Reuters.

Or try this link:
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&ncid=580&e=4&u=/nm/20030706/bs_nm/food_coffee_dc

Think about it. The foreign aid budgets of most countries of the EU are a significantly higher percentage of their GDP than in the states. People in the US seem to think that about 10% of the GDP goes for foreign aid, when really it's more like 0.5% of our GDP and shrinking. Then again, we give many loan guarantees for weapons purchases.

You must give cre3dit to the US for maintaining peace and tranquility in most of the world. People in Asia are freaking out about the possibility of a withdrawal of US troops from Japan and Korea. They hate to say it, but they love our guys abroad. And the USA does pay about 27% of the budget of the UN (27% out of 187 countries is a fairly high percentage...). So perhaps one can say we do our share in other ways.

Anyway, so where will hope come from? Possibly from the EU (with that strong Euro) or possibly from countries who's power structure is a little less entrenched than in the good old USA. Or maybe from some good people in the US. But to be honest, it does not look like the forces of progress are doing too well in the US right now. It seems like the Bushies are taking us back to the 1950s (mostly on social issues) as fast as they can...

Remember, hope always comes from places you never expect, from people that you'd never expect it from... But it does come...

UMEMPLOYMENT TIP OF THE DAY: Fourth of July
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Love your country and watch the fireworks.

UMEMPLOYMENT TIP OF THE DAY: Party late on Sunday nights
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You certainly have no big presentation to go home and prepare for, so why not go out and tie one on? A lot of hospitality industry people go out on Sunday nights and these folks are professional partiers. You can really meet some interesting (read: strange and freaky) people this way.

On Monday morning your working friends are going to be far too busy and grumpy to chat on email or talk to you on the phone. What else are you gonna do Monday besides wait for them to get home from work so you'll have someone to play with? May as well sleep off that hang over. So just drop the old baggage and discover the Sunday night nightlife in your town.