__________________________________________________ / / / The Eternity Articles / / / / Act I, Scene iv -- June 1995 / /_________________________________________________/ \ \ \ Who am I?: Sanjay Singh \ \ eternity@cyberspace.org \ \_________________________________________________\ "You can hide 'neath your covers / And study your pain / Make crosses from your lovers / Throw roses in the rain / Waste your summer praying in vain / For a saviour to rise from these streets." [Bruce Springsteen] This is bad... I just realized that I didn't send last month's issue through a spell checker. It could've been worse, but still that's bad. Sorry. It's been corrected at the ftp site now, but I kinda screwed up the file name... If you care, the file you want to get should be WhyMe1-3.txt.gz. I'll try to get the name changed to WhyMe1-3.gz when I upload this issue. Oh, and read the "Gimme, Gimme, Gimme" section, I'm thinking about setting up a web page for this, that's where some of the details are. What's Going On? ================ "What makes the truth curl up and lie / Is it the fly-by- night / If the counterfeit's the sham / How do we all stand / The deeper we put in the probe -- the less we know / What's going on? / I want to know / What's going on?" [Adam Ant] And don't complain about Adam Ant, it was either that or find someone that knew what comes after "where do we go" in whatever that Guns 'n Roses song is. Alright. I've given this some thought. I'm not sure if this will actually mean anything to you or not, but here we go, the cards are coming out from under my sleeves... As promised, here's my game plan for The Eternity Articles (or at least what I've been able to figure out): What am I trying to do? I'm not too sure. This started out as my voice, but I think I'm turning it into something else. For better, or for worse, that's what's happened. I won't lie, and say that I have a higher purpose. Honestly, I still think that I'm trying to work out some things personally, and airing my laundry seems to be the 'safest' way to do it right now. But then again, if I just got up and started blubbering, and going on about how miserable my life is, then no one would (or should) want to read it, and then this would all just be a waste of time. Besides, my life isn't all that miserable (don't get me wrong, it's not great, maybe not even good, but I can say I've been worse). What do I want? Nothing, the only thing that I need is forgiveness, but there's only one person that can give me that and she won't let a conversation pass beyond the 'polite' stage anymore, so this will just have to pass the time. Money is nice, but just the means to an end, and nothing more. And as soon as people learn that, things should start to change for the better. What am I doing? I've never been able to answer that about anything else, so why should I start now? With respect to this, some of the things that I've done in the past three months that I've really liked were the profiles of people that I just heard about, but really respect (Kate Sawford and Sue Rodriguez), and just grabbing peoples thoughts and stuffing them in here. I think that just adds another dimension to this entire mess. I'll still talk about myself, but if you're looking some real dirt, you'll have to come to me to get it, some secrets just do not go public. When will it all end? I don't know... I'd like it to go on for, well, an eternity (pun intended), but realistically, when it becomes more of a chore than an adventure to get out an issue, then I'll stop. Otherwise, we're riding the wind. Buckle up kids, it's going to be a bumpy ride... The 4 Paths to Domination ========================= "I don't want to die / I'm as innocent as anybody / I don't even know how to spell revolutionary" [Frente] For as long as I can remember, whenever I've heard all of these 'revolutionaries' talking, one of the things you always hear is that when you are taking over any city, country, world, whatever, the first thing you need to do is to take over all communication stations... Control the media, and you control the people, the problem with that thought is that it leaves a lot to be answered, like so now what? (which you might have noticed, is one of my more popular questions to ask) So this is what I've come up with so far. Granted this is all in theory because I haven't gotten around to taking over the world yet, but I should be getting around to it soon, since I promised a friend that I'd give it to her as soon as I had it. So how can you control the masses? Actually, from what I've read, or learned from a friend of mine (who probably knows more about human nature than the rest of us), or even just pieced together on my own, this is what I've learned. "Thought is a natural enemy to the Big Lie, but thought can be effectively put to sleep if its life-blood, words, are wholly redefined to subverse an ideology." [Dr. Donald DeMarco] LANGUAGE: This is critical, and pretty simplistic if you think about it. People adopt language very quickly, think about how many people have started saying "alllllll righty then" since Ace Ventura came out? How many people are more than happy to start spewing out "happy happy, joy joy" at you, and how many people have adopted "DOH!" into their normal conversational language? My soon to be infamous housemate actually told me that I was supposed to say "DOH" instead of "DAH" when I said it. Here I was, after spilling boiling water all over my arm trying to make a cup of tea, and he was just sitting there on the chair, or something, and telling me that it was "DOH" not "DAH". Like I'm actually supposed to think this out or something, instead of just reacting, I have to pick the 'funniest' thing to say to keep everyone entertained. No thank you, I'd rather think about my arm. Anyways, I think that's, at least, a reasonable example of how easy it is to change the language... Just get a couple of good writers, and a couple of cute and catchy coin-phrases, and soon you'll control the language. In Orwell's 1984, we get to see what happens when you take over the language... I'm not promising that this will be easy or fast, but remember that the faster you climb to power, the faster it'll slip away from you. "Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth." [John F. Kennedy] CONFORMITY: Now this one isn't too hard. I'm not too sure how it all started, but all of a sudden people (mostly bored teenagers) revolted, and all of a sudden calling somebody a conformist was an insult. So what did we all do? We spiked our hair (because we saw some guy with a huge spike sticking out of his head on a street corner downtown), and we started smoking (because James Dean did, and he was cool), and we started wearing nothing but black (probably because it makes you look thinner), and we got our ears pierced (to show how in touch we were with our feminity), and we grew stupid little goatees (because Jack McDowell has one, and he looks scary), and we started wearing trench coats (because the FBI does), and we only wore Nike Air Jordans (because Mike did), and then we got rid of those and started wearing Doc. Martins (because they're boots, which are cool, but they won't chafe my feet, at least not after I get them worked in). The list just goes on and on, but the end result is the same... We all look the same, and we all look like complete idiots. But we're all independent now, right? Oh yeah, and the most important thing... our parents don't like it. The simple fact is that no one wants to be different. Different is bad. People need to be accepted. But for some reason, we're not allowed to let anyone know that we want to be like anyone else. It's the chameleon within us all. We want to blend in, we're all terrified of being left out in the cold and dark night. Being alone is terrifying. Tell my sister that she can't go out on a Friday night and her brain would probably seize up, she can't even grasp the idea of spending a Friday night at home, it's just not natural. And if her friends found out that she didn't have plans for the evening... well, I wouldn't even want to think about what would happen then. And for anyone out there that has a kid sister that's just a couple of years younger then them, try to see if you can spot the pattern... The only time that they're really nice to you, is if they don't have any plans yet and it's not a school night. It's strange, they'll walk into the room, and try to talk to you, make polite conversation, ask if you want to rent a movie... you know, real sibling bonding. It might be nice if there wasn't a reason for it. Anyways, about conformity... Just get the right people to follow you, and you'll be set. People are terrified of change, so once you get the rules set, then they'll be set for life. If someone decides that your way isn't the best way, show them what happened in Russia. "The wide spread use of drugs is a symptom of a sick society. The war on drugs is bullshit. Especially since the CIA is one of the biggest dealers around. Drugs raise money and keep young black males (mostly) docile." [David Byrne] CRIME or NATURAL SELECTION: I always thought that that comment was a load of crap. Blatant paranoia at its best, wouldn't want to blame yourself for a drug habit, so blame the CIA. But it still does make some sense, and I think it may just be the last piece of the puzzle. Somehow, what you have to do is to form two (or three, but no more than that) gangs. Call them whatever you want, the names aren't important. Then just convince them that they need to be at war with each other. Now you've got about half of your population trying to kill themselves, this is actually a good thing. While the rebellious, angry half of your population busy trying to kill each other, you can speak out against crime, and do whatever you feel like, the population eventually will stop caring, and start being afraid. But we'll talk about fear in a moment. Why is it harder to get a cab if you're black? Because people are afraid of them. It's nothing they did, if anything the media is to blame for that one, but still, people are afraid. It's a great cycle, and race doesn't even need to fit into the picture, actually if it doesn't then you're already a step ahead of America. Anyone who's taken an economics course knows that everything works in cycles, so how's this one for you: Blacks are kept down by racism -> blacks have to suffer and are second class citizens -> left with no other option, blacks turn to crime -> the media takes over, and starts telling everyone how crime has increased, and coincidentally shows only black perps -> everyone gets the idea in their head that all blacks are criminals -> no one gives a black person a chance -> blacks have to suffer and are second class citizens... It's not hard to do, people love having someone to blame their problems on, too bad that the easiest targets are either black or Jewish. "Fear, it's the oldest tool of power. If you're distracted by fear of those around you, it keeps you from seeing the actions of those above." [from The X-Files] FEAR: This is how you keep it all together. If you've gotten to this point, then you should know this. Every politician knows this. It's a great trick. If you want to know why MicroSoft runs the software industry for the PC it's because they've given the people exactly what they wanted and at scared them into believing that they're the only people that can give it to you, remember, change is bad, progress is bad. People want things to stay the same, and if it ain't broke, then don't fix it. Have a happy, and prosperous monopoly. How To Run a Successful Cult ============================ Ok, this is an indulgence for me. This was an article published in "Zen Anarchy" (another e-zine). Anyways, this is the zine that really let me know what I could do and get away with. If it wasn't for Zen then none of you would be here in eternity with me, because it wouldn't exist. Zen Anarchy is published in PostScript, so if you have access to a viewer or a printer then I would have to recommend it to you... Anyways, since this is relevant, I thought I'd toss it in to let you know what's going on over there. by: Professor Zen [an118926@anon.penet.fi] from: Zen Anarchy, Volume 1, Issue 2 [ftp.etext.org: /pub/Zines/ZenAnarchy] You're probably asking yourself why would you even want to be a cult leader in the first place, right? Well, think of all the money you collect for doing nothing, all the people's lives you get to run, all of the weapons you can stockpile. Wait a minute, it sounds like I'm talking about the Catholic church doesn't it? Well with a few simple rules you can be the next Catholic church yourself. Kids, don't try this at home. Leave it to the professionals. PLEASE! Hard copy has enough pseudo news stories as it is and Geraldo never seems to run out of guests. STEP 1. Take a self-help and management course. This is fairly simple. Either watch two or three late night Tom Vu infomercials or just go down to your local bookstore and buy a few self-help books. At the very least you'll find some valuable bullshit to relate as gospel. Remember, these people make money undoing your valuable work. May they should be giving you a percentage. STEP 2. Find something so stupid that everyone believes you are the sole expert on it. How hard can that be? David Koresh managed to do it. Jim Jones managed it. The Clintons manage to do it. STEP 3. Find the flock to fleece. Bus stations are probably not the best place to go looking for your sheep. You'll run into stiff competition from the pimps and movie producers, not to mention a few politicians and drunks. Not that there is a whole hell of a lot of difference between a wino and a pol, except that we willingly give the wino money for booze. College campuses and trailer parks are probably your best bet. College students for the most part have to be some of the stupidest people on the face of the Earth. I mean putting a kid who has never been away from home in a place where they can do pretty much whatever they want is like giving the addicts the key to the dispensary. Trailer parks should be self explanatory. STEP 4. The Commune Berkeley used to be prime feeding ground until they started going conservative, so now your best bet is probably Oregon. Housing is cheap, and the locals are about as strange as the people that follow you anyways. Remember, Oregon is the trailer park of the west coast. Nobody will suspect a thing until you have your followers go down to the local gun store and purchase 500,000 shotgun shells and they inadvertently say that you're preparing for the (insert your special prophecy here) and the next thing you know the BATF decides to hold a weenie roast in your honour. STEP 5. The movie deal after the raid. Ok, now that the BATF has burned your commune to the ground, the last step is to secure the media rights. This is assuming of course that you had the foresight to pack yourself and Eva in a bunker and not do yourself in before the authorities swooped in. Now you're on your own, so hire a good attorney, get Hard Copy to tell your side of the story (make it sound convincing), and when you get out of prison in six months due to overcrowding, you're ready to start all over again. We're Talkin' Jerry =================== "The failures of the press have contributed immensely to the emergence of a talk-show nation, in which public discourse is reduced to ranting and raving and posturing. We now have a mainstream press whose news agenda is increasingly influenced by this netherworld." [Carl Bernstein] I was watching The Jerry Springer Show yesterday, I try not to miss it because personally I love it. It's my little peepshow, while my friends tell me that it's crap, and trivial, and sensationalism, and whatever else my friends usually go on about, I just ignore them... after all one of them watches Melrose Place, and one of the others watches Beverly Hills 90210. At least I have my evenings free. Anyways, on with the topic at hand... Why is Jerry the king? How come not even Montel can hold a candle to him? Let's start from the beginning. My sister is a notorious channel surfer, she's got the attention span of... well, of my sister (that's about the only comparison there is). It's probably TV's fault, but that's alright, since all the cool kids are doing it, it must be right. Anyways, one day over the Christmas holidays we were both home, and she was sitting on the couch watching Ricki Lake (which I just don't get... it's the same topic... every time!) and when the commercial came on, she jumped to Jerry, who very coincidentally had a catfight going right at that moment, between (from what I found out later) an ex-hooker and a current hooker. So, naturally, I made her keep the channel set on Jerry, and it was just a matter of days until I was hooked. I was a slave to Jerry. Hell, if I was in Chicago, I'd probably become one of those idiots that stand there after the show grasping for their 15 minutes, but screaming "we love you Jerry" or "we drove all the way from Texas to see you Jerry" or "I want to have your baby, Jerry." Not even Geraldo has that kind of status amongst his fans... Actually, most of his fans probably have one of those 'love to hate you' relationship things. I won't go as far as saying that his fans as a psychotically loyal as Oprah's are, but this is nothing to just ignore... Them man is good. He even used to be the mayor of Cincinnati. Now, the question is why? I'm not going to pretend that I'm above all of this, yes I watch Springer, yes I even watch bits and pieces of the Simpson trial, and I'll admit it in public even. But why do most people change the channel as soon as they see you walk into the room and pretend that they weren't watching it, but instead they try to convince you that they're really fascinated with some guy attacking a piece of wood with a chisel on the Learning Channel? Why was my housemate so surprised when I told him that I had seen Ford Fairlane and thought it was a great movie? And no I can't stand Dice's stand up, but the movie is a gem. Why are people so ashamed of what they watch, if it's that much of a hassle, then don't watch it. And how come just about every says that they only watch 90210 because there's nothing else on... If there's nothing on, then don't watch anything, read a book. Read this. This leaves us with the big question: how did I get from talking about Jerry, to trying to figure out denial? Oh well, "be good to yourselves, and each other." Hey, This is Good! ================== I just found this while trying to free up some space on my computer. Let's see, I wrote it about two and a half years ago, for a grade 13 english assignment. I just reread it, and liked it, I thought I'd share it with you. The pale blue glow from the monitor lit the corner of the room. The clicking of the keyboard was drowned out by the closing theme to Star Trek: The Next Generation, and the constant clatter from the kitchen. The desk is a visual exaggeration of the noise around me. To my right is a hot cup of tea and a box of tissues, to my left is a collection of yellows, oranges, and reds all combined in boxes of throat drops, past the clutter of the boxes is a garbage bin filled with discarded tissues. My sister has just entered the room and is adding her voice to the clutter, "did you know that they're Canadian", "do you like this group", "why are you turning off the TV?" My mother has just taken my sister out for a drive in an attempt to find a cure to whatever sickness I might have contracted this time, my father is asleep upstairs, and finally I can hear the keyboard. Click, click, click, click, click. A cassette tape has just been placed in my tape deck, and now the soothing voice of Journey's Steve Perry singing a ballad of life, love, and loss has entered my solitary realm. Soon the others will return, changing my quiet and secluded corner of the room into their noisy gathering area. I can sense their inevitable return like a field mouse can sense a hawk's hungry stare on its back. The Greatest Game in the World ============================== "The one constant through all the years, has been baseball. America is ruled by it like an army of steam rollers. It's been erased like a blackboard, rebuilt and erased again. But baseball has marked the time. This field, this game is a part of our past. It reminds us all that once was good, and it could be again. People will come. People will most definately come." [Field of Dreams] Last week me and a friend went out to the Dome (SkyDome, the big artificial looking, bad excuse for a baseball park, entertainment complex, that the Blue Jays play in) to watch the Toronto vs. New York baseball game. And so there we were, two huge baseball fans, with great seats arguing about who was the better team (I'm a Yankee fan, he likes the Jays for some reason). Anyways, we were watching the game (great game by the way) and we noticed that people were leaving the game in the 7th inning, just because the Yanks took a two run lead off of a three run hit. We stayed, because like most sane people, we know that a baseball game is supposed to be 9 innings. But this usually happens, people leave the game a bit early to get out the parking lots with less traffic, etc. And although the 7th inning is a little early, the Jays were losing, so fine, time to jump off of the bandwagon, and head home, right? Now we go to the bottom of the 7th. Yanks leading by 2. Jays up to bat, and BOOM, Carter hits a home run, the fireworks go off, and everyone that stayed is happy. Next up is Maldonado, and BOOM, another homer, again, the fireworks go off and now everyone that stayed is ecstatic. Well except for the handful of Yankee fans that were there. So now the game is tied. Top of the 8th. Game tied at 7. Yanks score a run off of a Dion James single. More people leave. Then Boggs triples and James comes in. Now the park has lost at least a third of the people that were there when the game started. Me and my friend move up from row 40 to row 20, trying to hide from the security guard that was sending people back to their original seats (why? I don't know). By the way, the difference between row 20 and row 40 at the dome is just remarkable. This was my first time in the 100 level seats, and although 40 was nice, 20 was beautiful. Bottom of the 8th. Yanks up by a pair. Basically, the Jays score a couple of runs and White gets a triple. Very exciting. Top of the 9th. Tied at 9. Tartabull singles in a run. People are leaving like the plague has been dropped inside the stadium. Why? I thought that by now they would have realized that the Jays were keeping everything even. They've been matching the Yankees blow for blow. This is great, this is baseball, this is exciting. Neither team is giving up, they're fighting for every run, but still, people leave. Now James doubles, scoring two runs. Now it's pretty safe to say that over half of the 'fans' have fled from the stadium. Maybe there was a gas leak, but no one told us. Bottom of the 9th. Yanks ahead by 3. Alomar hits one out. More fireworks, more people cheering, but not nearly as loud as it was before. So now it's within 2. Huff doubles, and injures himself trying to get to second. How's that for sacrificing yourself for the team? The pinch runner moves to third on a passed ball, and then scores on a sacrifice fly. Now it's down to one run. And this is where it ended. We were hoping for extra innings, but still, this is a great game. It's the second best baseball game that I've ever seen live. Just a great game. Too bad, so many people missed the best part. If they cared enough to check the papers the next day they might have regretted it, but I doubt they did. Heeeeeee's Baaaaaaaaack... ========================== "I envy paranoids; they actually feel people are paying attention to them." [Susan Sontag] by: Paul Sheen [ThePeach@cyberspace.org] Ever wondered what your boss really thought of you? He always seems nice to you in front of you, but then his actions defy that? Well that's how my boss was while I was working in a government establishment to remain nameless. Every time I went and asked him a question he would be very cheerful and helpful, but that's the thing, I had to go and ask him questions. Not once did he come into the room and ask me how I was doing, or even really give me anything to do. I would just sit at work and play on the Internet all day, waiting for him to give me some project to work on that was really vapourware or so it seemed. For the first two months, he gave me a project to work on that was a basic function of the application I was working in. But never did he come in and ask me how I was progressing. Instead, I just seethed, avoiding him at all costs, figuring at one point he would actually ask.. And then one day he came in and told me to forget about it. So I was supposed to wait for some other piece of software to come in. Back to the Internet... This in itself is not a big deal. But then the fact that the first day I started work there in the summer, he was not there and did not tell me what I needed to do annoyed me. I had to call him and ask him where to go and all he told me was to show up at a certain floor and meet a certain woman. That woman happened to be away that day too. So there I am, sitting at a desk that somebody plopped me behind and told me to do what I wanted. So I sat there the entire day pretty much not knowing where anything was, not knowing when to have lunch, not knowing where the bathroom was. What a horrible situation. So then I go through the term, with him at work sporadically, giving me little direction. In fact, I got more work from other people than him. Then, with about a week to go in my term, my boss tells me, "I won't be here tomorrow, nice working with you, later." And that was that. But I was scheduled to come back to work the next term, so i knew I'd be dealing with him again. I get back the next term, and guess what? My boss isn't there. He's got a day off for some reason or another, but that doesn't really surprise me. So I sat around for the first day getting accustomed to the surroundings once again. Luckily this time I knew the drill. However, there was another girl that I worked with who was in the same predicament as I. She was all alone for the first week of work and did not know when to take lunch or where the washrooms were or any of those important details. It's as if you're just supposed to know it. Though I suppose asking never hurt either, at least it worked for me. Insert another boring work term here... I'm getting towards the end of my second work term and nothing eventful has happened, except my boss is there when he feels like it, it seems. So I get to the end of the term, and on the day before I leave, my boss tells me he won't be there the next day for my last day of work. Big surprise there! So of course I said goodbye to him and he had all these nice things to say about me on my evaluation but I never heard them off paper. And in total, he made it to neither the beginning nor end of my work term in either term. That's 4 random days out of 240 and he just happened to miss them. Perhaps he couldn't handle such a wide range of emotions. (ie. The exhiliration of me arriving, and the agony of me leaving, or vice versa.) So I guess the moral of the story is absence makes the student worker really confused. This Space For Rent =================== Earlier this month, I got a 4 page message from some guy called Bob Williams. Anyways, what he sent was an economic strategy for running the government. I read through it, and the basic idea is pretty well thought out. Anyways, if anyone wants a copy of it, feel free to send mail to him at will1190@splava.cc.plattsburgh.edu or you can send mail to me. I think I still have it on my account somewhere, but he'd probably be happier if you asked him yourself. People That Made This Possible ============================== "I hope that just once in my life I can make a difference like that in someone else's life. Thanks." [from E.R.] I really haven't had that many people to thank since the first issue, which is why I haven't thanked anyone since then, but here's a list of people that at least deserved to get their names out for helping me along with my own journey, from when it all started 5 years ago. Paul, who should be helping me edit this, so you can blame any problems on him, just kidding Paul. Actually, he's one of the few people that I have to tell me when I start to go too far off the deep end, and to tell me when it's time to eat. If only I could get him to read it more than before I mail it out to everyone. The original gang from alt.life.sucks. I haven't been around there in a while, so I don't know what's going on there, but thanks to Lillith, Kerstie, Andy, Matthew, Brian, Carrie, and Doc. I don't think I forgot anyone. If your name wasn't on that list, then there's probably a good reason for it. The eternals (Lori, Jessie, and Kim), for holding onto the wheel when my life started to veer off the road. They either made me, or they helped to put another nail in the coffin, but for what it's worth, I still owe them. Lori taught us that we weren't invincible, and that even the strongest of us could fall to pieces. Jessie taught me the rules of the game, and Kim taught me that even after you lose you still have a chance in the second round. Steve, what can I say? This is the guy that taught me everything I ever needed to know about human nature. Smartest guy I know, probably the most dangerous too, but that's another story. Dirk, for asking me why I wanted to go back to her when just thinking about her was tearing me up inside. He probably doesn't even remember this, but it meant a lot to me. I think that's about it. If I left anyone out, then I'll take care of it when I remember who they are. Thanks for reading everyone. Stuff That's Here Every Month... ================================ "There's nothing to do anymore. Everything decent has been done. All the great themes have been used up, turned into theme parks." [from Pump Up The Volume] Ok, I'm killing off this theme idea. There will still be themes, but I don't like having my hands tied. That just leads to stuff like that Woody Allen thing last month. Anyways, like I said, there will still be a basic underlying theme to each issue (probably), but nothing to get tied down to. If a special occasion comes up, then I'll cover it, but for the most part, we've cast off the shackles (unless, of course, you're into that sort of thing). Also, I'm thinking about saving this as an enhanced text file, so if you print it you can get all sorts of pretty things, like bold and italics. Of course, this could really screw things up if you read it on a screen (I'm not sure, right now this is still an idea). If you have a preference, I'd like to know what it is. Gimme, Gimme, Gimme! ==================== Well if you have this then you probably know how you got it, but in case this was passed on to you, then I'll just let you know where you can find it. ftp: ftp.etext.org /pub/Zines/WhyMe/ gopher: gopher.etext.org follow the prompts mail: if you want a copy sent by mail then just send a request to me at the eternity address. If you ask for a copy I'll send one to you. subscriptions: Just send me mail, I'll add you to the list. All I ask is that you let me know what you think about this 'zine, and you can even mention how you found out about it. web: I'm trying to figure out how to do this web thing. I've never really tried setting up a html page, so this may take a little time, but I have the site pick out, and all of the other minor details. If anyone is familiar with this sort of thing, feel free to let me know, I'll take all the help I can get. As always, if you have a question, comment, statement, rant, or anything, feel free to let me know. There's always room for me to improve, and there's always room for an extra page of filler. And the quote list that started it all can be found at the ftp site... I think you can gopher it, but it's pretty big, so ftping it would probably be the easiest thing to do. Or I could just mail it to you. The one at etext has been there since the end of April. Disclaimer ========== I take full responsibility of the overall content here. There might be other contributors (and what they say is their own intellectual property), but what goes into this is my choice. Truth is subjective (if you believe something then to you it is fact, and if you don't then it is fiction, simple enough?) so I won't make any claims about honesty... believe what you want. If you're going to use something from here just make sure that you cite whoever wrote the article. If it doesn't say who wrote it, then it's probably me. Still asking: If you know anything about ISSN numbers, like where I can get one, or what I need them for, or even if I need one, could you please let me know... Everyone else has one, and I want one too. Thanks. Sanjay Singh (5/20/95)