Like a long dead Egyptian pharoah who is buried in a magnificient tomb with all of his wives, their wives, and three generations of his children who kick and scream in their dusty tombs for weeks before finally dying from extreme dehydration, and then rises thousands of years later to stalk the hallways of Art Deco hotels in Los Angeles where a troup of comedians is staying, I, Ben Brown, the Internet Rockstar, have returned to you, my beloved audience.

I have started a blog. YES, I know that I have long spoken out against the blog format, but I see around me now changes in the online world that, like the amber beams of sunlight on a day that you know, you just know is going to be the greatest day in all of history, uh, I lost my train of thought there. TIMES ARE A CHANGIN, and the future is Ben Brown.

My blog is here: blog.benbrown.com

BELIEVE.

Yours,
Ben Brown

Mark Laramee used to keep a blog. He doesn't anymore, so I have to share this with the world on his behalf:

-ecenter@verizon.com wrote:

>> Thank you for contacting the Verizon eCenter. My
>> name is Michael, and I will be glad to handle your
>> request today.
>>
>> This message is in response to your email dated ____
>> . You inquired about ________ . I would be happy
>> to assist you with that. While I'm taking care of
>> your request, I'll review your account to see how I
>> can optimize your service.
>>
>>
>> Thank you for using Verizon. We appreciate your
>> business.
>>
>> Sincerely,
>> Michael
>> Verizon eCenter

-Mark Laramee replied:

Thanks for taking time to reply Michael.

I'm looking forward to ______. And I'm hoping you
will also be able to _______. I'm not sure what
optimizing is, but I'm sure it will _______ my
_______.

Thanks again, and as always ________.

August 28, 1963... At the historic March on Washington, the first large integrated protest march, Dr. King delivers his famous "I Have a Dream" speech from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial on the Mall in Washington, DC

"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.

Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves, who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.

But one hundred years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.

In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men, yes, black men as well as white men, would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note, insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked "insufficient funds."

But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we have come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice.

We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of Now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.

But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must ever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.

And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecutions and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive. Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair, I say to you today, my friends. And so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal.

I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day, down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification; one day right down in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today!

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

This is our hope. This is the faith that I will go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day. And this will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning, "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!" And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true.

And so let freedom ring -- from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire.

Let freedom ring -- from the mighty mountains of New York.

Let freedom ring -- from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.

Let freedom ring -- from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado.

Let freedom ring -- from the curvaceous slopes of California.

But not only that.

Let freedom ring -- from Stone Mountain of Georgia.

Let freedom ring -- from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.

Let freedom ring -- from every hill and molehill of Mississippi, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!

And when this happens, when we allow freedom to ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual,

'Free at last, free at last.

Thank God Almighty, we are free at last.'"

You guys all know I'm a PC guy. You know that I use PCs at home and at work, and that I build them on the side. You've also probably noticed that I have a begrudging respect(read: envy) for all things Mac as of late. I want a G5. I want an iPod. I want a TiBook. Well, now I want a Mac Mini.

This new little fella could be seen by some as Apple's answer to the small form factor PC. I would venture to say that SFF PCs by manufacturers like Shuttle and Monarch haven't made it far enough outside the enthusiast market to even be considered 'mainstream.' The Mac Mini will, for the public at large, pre-empt one of the biggest PC trends coming down the pipe.

This isn't entirely new. When liquid cooling and dual processor machines were old news to PC modders but unknown to the general public, Mac announced their new G5 with both. This came alongside the new Unix-based OS and IBM-built processor. All of a sudden the best PC on the market was... a Mac.

Now, the Mac Mini will beat the likes of Shuttle PC to the market with small form factor machines for the home. This form factor has the advantage of being proprietary, so there is no need to account for other manufacturer parts. That allows for an astonishingly small box: 6.25" x 6.25" x 2". Yes, 2".

At 2.9 lbs, the Mac Mini boasts a single 1.42Ghz G5 processor, 256MB DDR SDRAM (expandable to 1GB), and an ATI Radeon 9200 32MB video chip. Storage off the shelf is 40GB (or 80GB) for $499. Add-ons include Apple Superdrive DVD burner, internal Airport WiFi, internal Bluetooth, and additional ram and storage.

The only trend here that Apple didn't incorporate is the new DDR2 ram spec, which allows for faster, more efficient ram at equivilant voltages. One could assume that a market dirth prevented the use of DDR2.

This article may be of particular interest to those few friends who shared our love of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. It may also pique the interest of certain friends who's love of the English language surpasses even my own.

Slayer Slang is part of the PBS Do You Speak American? project.

Thanks to sites like Fark, Metafiler, and CNN, one never has to look far for a moronic write-up on the stupidity of our fellow man. Join me, won't you, as we explore just a few of the News Items That Pissed Me Off Today.

Let there be a lighted cross, court says

"Twenty-three years ago, Noel Dube said, the Virgin Mary urged him to erect a shrine to God. Now a [the Middlesex Superior Court] has ruled that it can stay.

Dube, an 85-year-old World War II veteran who lost a leg sweeping mines in Germany, said he began building the shrine after the Virgin Mary spoke to him during his morning prayers on May 28, 1982.

After a neighbor complained about the shrine's size and the visitors it attracted, the town asked Dube to remove it in 1999. Instead, he expanded it, adding a 30-foot painting of Jesus and a 24-foot illuminated cross to a 20-foot mural of Our Lady of Fatima."

Toilet brush wins wacky bowl

"A toilet brush with a tag that says Do not use for personal hygiene has taken top prize for the wackiest consumer warning label of the year, according to an anti-lawsuit group.

The Michigan Lawsuit Abuse Watch, M-LAW, whose main mission is to reveal how lawsuits and anxiety over lawsuits have created a need for overly obvious warnings on products, sponsors The Wacky Warning Label Contest each year.

Other top finishers this year include:

-- A scooter with the warning This product moves when used.
-- A digital thermometer with the advice Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally.
-- An electric blender used for chopping and dicing that reminds users to Never remove food or other items from the blades while the product is operating.
-- And a three-inch bag of air used for packaging that read Do not use this product as a toy, pillow, or flotation device.'"

Stardom is a gas for Brad and Leo

"Pitt has just given $10,000 to have a forest planted in his name in the tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan. Its trees will absorb carbon dioxide, compensating for the tonnes that the star has been responsible for releasing into the atmosphere: burning aviation fuel as he jets around the world, using up petrol in his limousines and running air-conditioning in hotel rooms. Gyllenhaal has spent similar sums, although his trees are to be planted in Mozambique."