Eric James Stone

www.oh-by-the-way-we-have-Darla-stashed-here.com

Just a little something for fans of the TV show Angel.

In order to get a feel for what people want from the Internet, the company i work for is doing a survey. It’ll take several minutes to fill out, but if you’re one of the first 100 people, they’ll send you five dollars. If you do decide to participate, please make an effort to answer the questions thoroughly, because that will help us design better internet tools.

If enough people complete the survey by February 2, 2004, then we get a pizza party here at work.

Here’s a link to the survey.

I happen to have a credit card from CitiBank, but I’m hardly unique in that.

I got this e-mail today, to an e-mail address that is different from the one I used in registering with CitiBank’s online system.

Subject: Citi-bank E-MAIL Veerification - [my e-mail address]

Dear _Citibank Member,

This message was _sent_ by-the Online-Citibank _server to veerify your E-MAIL adderss.
You must cmoeltpe this pcsreos by clicking on the link _below_ and enntering in the smmall _window_ your CITIBANK _Debit Card Number and PIN that you_use in_the local Atm_Machine.
That is donne for-your poertction -Z- becaurse some of our _members_ no loengr have access to their email addresses and we must verify it.

http://citicards.org:%42%5a6%66%48%56@%6e%6d%66%67%6a39%65%63%2e%44%61%2e%72%55/%3f%51%47%5a%4c%71%75

To veerify your_ Email adress and accees _your bank account, clic on_the_link _bellow_.

Rtg7TmDQbHLRJ8b

Almost every word in there is misspelled or has an extraneous underbar. Is there really anyone so dumb as to believe this e-mail came from CitiBank?

The same website that I used for the map of states I’ve been to has something similar for countries. The red ones are the one’s I’ve been to.

(Click image for full size.)

I don’t count countries if I’ve only flown over them. I am counting a couple of countries that I’ve landed in, even if I never got off the plane.

My mother just called to tell me that my sister Julie gave birth to a baby girl a few minutes ago.

The entry title is how I responded to the news.

It’s an allusion to an old joke:

John: I just got a telegram saying my sister gave birth to a baby.
Bill: That’s great.
John: Yes, but it doesn’t say whether the baby’s a boy or a girl, so I don’t know whether I’m an uncle or an aunt!

Found this through the Volokh Conspiracy. It’s a map showing in red all the states I’ve been to. How did the Volokh Conspiracy know which states I’ve been to? It’s their job to know things.

(Actually, I followed a link from their site to the place that allowed me to make the map.)

(Click image for full size.)

create your own visited states map
or write about it on the open travel guide

As you can see, I’ve been to enough states to ratify an amendment to the Constitution.

In this assignment for my writing class, we had to write about a child who has to deal with the problem of being told to be nice, even if that denies their real feelings. The child needs to either decide to deny their feelings, or else let their feelings out and face the results of not being “nice.”

“Mommy?” Katylyn stood in the kitchen doorway, watching her mother put something in the microwave.

“What is it, honey?”

“You said I suppose to be nice to everybody.”

“Yes, that’s right. You need to be nice to everybody.” Her mother started stirring a pot on the stove.

Katylyn frowned. “Even monsters?”
Read the rest of this entry »

My eyes are fine. More than fine, actually. I went to my eye doctor today for my one-year post-surgery followup visit.

With both eyes combined, my vision is 20/15, which is better than 20/20. The doctor was very pleased, and said that if my vision had stabilized this well a year after the laser surgery, it was a good sign for the future.

Last weekend, I took a trip down to San Diego to see my sister Carolyn perform in the play Sky Girls.

She was wonderful, of course. Let me tell you a bit about the play, so you can understand the character she was portraying.

The play is about five WASP (Womens Air Service Pilots) trainees in Sweetwater, Texas back in 1943. The WASP program is being run by the legendary female pilot Jackie Cochran, who is pushing hard to have Congress formally make the WASP part of the U.S. military. The five trainees and Jackie Cochran are the six characters in the play.

Carolyn plays Bishop, a senior trainee. Ever since she was a little girl, Bishop has known and idolized Jackie Cochran, which puts her in the difficult position of trying to keep the other trainees in line so they don’t make a public fuss about problems and thereby hurt the chances of Congress militarizing the WASP program. At the same time, the other trainees expect her to use her ralationship with Cochran to solve some of the problems they face (mostly related to prejudice by men against women pilots.)

Because of her pivotal position between Cochran and the other trainees, Carolyn gets a chance to do some very intense scenes in which she argues Cochran’s case with anothe trainee, and argues the trainees’ case with Cochran. Carolyn does a marvelous job in these scenes; you can feel the passion that she brings to the arguments.

I heard an interesting story from someone who works at the theater. After the matinee performance before the show I saw, a member of the audience told her that she had been very much caught up in the play. In fact, during a scene where Carolyn’s character was in a plane with engine trouble, the audience member had started praying for her to be all right, before remembering that it was just a play and that there was no real danger.

So, to conclude my little review, if you happen to be in San Diego before the play closes, I highly recommend that you go see it. It’s thought-provoking, funny, and has some great acting.

Years ago, during the debate over the creation of a holiday honoring Martin Luther King, Jr., I opposed the idea.

I was wrong, and I’m not just saying that because I get the day off of work now.

My reasons for opposing it were based on some negative things I’d read about his character, and I didn’t like that fact that a man with such flaws would get a holiday in his honor.

I was wrong. Not about the flaws, necessarily, but about whether the man deserved to be honored despite his flaws.

Martin Luther King was a man who believed in the promise of America, and who did his best to see that promise fulfilled. If you haven’t read it recently, go read his famous speech. There’s a lot more in there than “I have a dream.”

The America Martin Luther King believed in is the America I believe in: a country that is supposed to provide liberty and justice for all. In honoring Martin Luther King, we are saying that we want his vision to come true.

The men who founded this country were flawed men; and those who have led it were also flawed. But we elevate flawed men to our country’s pantheon; we overlook their flaws and honor them for the good they did. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln — none of them were perfect.

Neither was Martin Luther King. But his influence was vital in pushing our country toward fulfilling the promise made in the Declaration of Independence.

So I was wrong, and as today is Martin Luther King Day, I decided it was a good time to admit my mistake.

(Note: This entry was originally published on my now-defunct political blog, Attilathepundit.com.)