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musings of mark since 2001

Even though I am totally connected electronically to the continent, that depends on electricity and it’s nice to have a reminder of this once in a while. Old fashioned snail mail gets here on a boat, and the time is longer than email or the internet but the mail can be a lot nicer to hang on your wall. I digress, Dad has taken up a new hobby of creating pictures with wood and the one he has sent me is titled: “Whales off Bowen Island”. It’s kind of like a mosaic, but the colours and patterns come from trees rather than tile or stone and the only way it could get here was on one of those boats. It now occupies a prominent area of one wall, the first thing to go up other than the clock actually in this apartment so getting off to a good start!

I only watched Mr. Rogers as an adult, my childhood shows were about how to learn to speak French via Chez´ Helen along with the antics of Rusty the Rooster, Jerome the Giraffe and a real giant named Friendly that all Canadian kids in the 60’s loved, (oh! Canada – nuf’ said). Mr. R was a giant in his own right and even though he was a Presbyterian minister he never let religion be part of his program and to his credit, every episode was still a spiritual event. Children don’t talk about his show like a cartoon or Disney movie, but they absorb every word. It’s intellectual stuff for them and has great import upon the rest of their lives, they learn how to think properly of themselves and how to accept others, something that is forgotten by many adults and maybe should be a required remedial subject. Mr. Rogers learned from his neighborhood that “everyone was special” and he practiced what he so softly preached world wide and is remembered by many.

   Been reading the excerpts from the Dan Rather interview with Saddam Hussein, and it sounds like he’s ready for the war Bush is going to have regardless of the carrots he can give to the U.N. No one calls this an American war it seems even in the US press, it’s always President Bush’s war. The evil one, (the one in the desert oil fields Arab place) believes that he won the first war in the 90’s and they will be still standing to fight them after the first massive punch from Bush and even a second. The next report to the UN from Hans Blix is Saturday, so my prediction for the first strike to happen will be Sunday night or Monday March 3rd. Both are dark new moon nights, a huge advantage for planes to keep them from being silhouetted against the light of the moon. The next one will be April Fools Day, which would be as fitting date as any to start the world down such a path as this.

On February 24, 2003 at 18:22, someone@a wdvl.address.com wrote:
> …………..Landoverbaptist.org is a well known
> site full of racial bigotry and religious intolerance. It is
> irresponsible to promote such a site………..

   I hardly think he was promoting it, merely showing us how parodies can be taken to such an extremes that they start to not become parodies anymore (he said it was wicked right up front, complete with examples). The landoverbaptist site is definitely extreme, I didn’t even get to the examples that BJ explicitly pointed out, obviously to warn anyone so they never actually had to visit the site like I did to get the idea.
   rudy’s (funny/barely legal) example http://www.davezilla.com/index.php?p=1641
falls somewhere between Joseph’s ( IMHO – funny/but not legal) parody that may even amuse Amazon; and BJ’s (wicked/but legal) – site which definitely won’t amuse certain groups. Sounds like we are starting to get a cross section look at the whole issue of parody sites, which to a thinking person can’t be a bad thing and alternate thinking is what makes list-serves rock.

   Seriously, give BJ a bit of slack here. Except for a couple really smart under-18 semi-lurkers that throw up a good post/code-example now and then when needed, we’re all adults here and able to decide for ourselves what our limits are.

   And it definitely is a good thing for Joseph. AFAIK he values the opinions of everyone – think about his posts and replies for the time he’s been on this list. I think for anyone, when you are creating a parody of something like Amazon it’s good to know what kind of prior art is out here.
   That’s the rub in this post as well though Joseph. You are selling something on that web page right? That makes it a commercial entity and puts you in the doghouse (IMHO/I am not a Lawyer but got a good one on retainer and no you can’t have him). In other words, even if it is a parody of Amazon, if you are realizing a tangible $ benefit (or even the future promise of such from that page), you are using Amazon’s prior art to reap your profits and I think they would have a case against you (as long as something is actually for sale on that page).

I really like the page though!

   When it’s nice here, it’s really nice eh. The days are starting to get longer and this morning the sun is coming up before seven to a crystal blue sky. Little breeze kicking up off the ocean keeping the air clean and the promise of a bright sunshine day to go out in and work on the garden. One big patch of brambles to pull out yet, and a few rogues coming up here and there.
   The deer have been nibbling on the crocuses out front and have them down to about an inch out of the ground now, not sure if the landlord has noticed it yet but I’ll see him when he’s out today moving his chestnut tree. Brenda keeps threatening to come over to work on the garden, sure she will make it today, it’s just way too pleasant out there to stay inside.