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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
   <bootstrap interop="standard" value="true"/>
   <interware status="err259"/>
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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
   <bootstrap interop="standard" value="true"/>
   <interware status="err259"/>
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      <support>
         <subject id="this" type="local_object"/>
         <error local_object_count="97365" heuristic_narrowing="active" heuristic="immediate_vicinity" candidate_object_count="974" identification="failure"/>
      </support>
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   <generalization>
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         <condition type="foreach">
            <method id="is_imagined_by" return_type="boolean">
               <parameter value="querent"/>
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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
   <bootstrap interop="standard" value="true"/>
   <interware status="err259"/>
   <message type="response"/>
   <idiom_detection confidence="0.6" value="true">
      <result status="failure"/>
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   <object>
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         <property id="mind" type="unknown"/>
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      <status value="not_found"/>
   </object>
   <response type="boolean" value="true" confidence="0.6"/>
</communication>

November 01, 2003

ethan.thenekodas.com

Matinee Idol

Honey, please be careful.

I trust in your instincts, though. It's one of the things I adore the most about you. You get people - it's as if you have some innate ability to separate the meat from the gristle when it comes to personalities.

I think that's part of what makes your trips so hard right now. I wish you could just sit with me, quietly, in our living room, and you could tell me why these nights plague me so.

Mmm, tell me all about the movie when you call. If you must communicate with this Todd guy, please, do stay in public areas. I find that I am really intrigued - the sleep-deprived brain in my head feels like an outsider. It's some fantastic story, some movie-of-the-week, but it's happening to us.

Anyway, love you, baby.

In shock

Dina,

I went down to the High Flyer Bar tonight. I went in, went to the bar and sat down. Nice place, good view, upscale clientele. Seemed like a pretty normal place, so I started to relax a little.

I didn't see anybody I knew, and while I was wondering what to do, the bartender comes up to me. That's when things got weird. He smiled and asked me if I'd like 'the usual.' The usual???

I asked him if he knew me, and he said sure I do, you used to come in here all the time. He then gave me a Mack and Jack's, on the house. It was good, heheh.

I was pretty sure that it was becoming apparent that someone's running around out there who's my twin, so I asked the bartender (Mike) who he thought I was.

He looked a little unsure of himself at that point, and said he didn't quite know what I wanted him to do or say. Me? I have no clue! Then he said he'd just better play it safe and give me something, then whatever happens would be in my hands.

He pulled out an envelope from behind the cash register. It's at this point that I'm not sure how to go on about this. The only thing I can think of to do is to put up a picture of what was inside for you to see, because I need you to verify something for me.

Is this my handwriting????

Posted by Ethan at 11:39 PM

November 02, 2003

ethan.thenekodas.com

November 02, 2003

dina.thenekodas.com

November 02, 2003

ethan.thenekodas.com

Sleepless in...no, I won't

OK, sorry but it's true. This thing kept me up all night last night.

Don't do anything until I get home, then we'll figure out what, if anything, we should do from here. I'll be home tomorrow on 938, unless you hear otherwise.

See you soon....finally!

November 03, 2003

dina.thenekodas.com

November 04, 2003

dina.thenekodas.com

November 05, 2003

dina.thenekodas.com

i'm holding on.

<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
   <bootstrap interop="standard" value="true"/>
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      <separation units="sdu" x="3.0" y="4.1" z="0.2"/>
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   <recognition data_retrieval="success" heuristic_image_parsing="success" image_matching="success" result="success"/>
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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
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   <message type="response"/>
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            <object ref="pda_program" class="construct"/>
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            <date day="31" month="10" year="2003"/>
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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
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            <operator type="equals" value="pda_program"/>
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   <comment type="generic" subtype="congratulatory"/>
</communication>

<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
   <bootstrap interop="standard" value="true"/>
   <interware status="err259"/>
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   <log filtered="true">
      <event type="system">
         <datetime>
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      <event type="system">
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         </datetime>
         <process system="physics" subsystem="coll_det" action="reboot"/>
      </event>
      <event type="system">
         <datetime type="local">
            <date year="2003" month="10" day="31"/>
            <time hour="17" minute="31" second="02"/>
         </datetime>
         <process system="visual" subsystem="clip" action="reboot"/>
      </event>
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</communication>

<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
   <bootstrap interop="standard" value="true"/>
   <interware status="err259"/>
   <message type="response"/>
   <interop>
      <protocol_from type="cg" id="cg://ara9975.lka18383"/>
      <protocol_to type="nat_lang" name="eng" subclass="us"/>
      <status value="corrupted"/>
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<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
   <bootstrap interop="standard" value="true"/>
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         <task type="repair">
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            <error system="memory" subsystem="data_retrieval" status="corrupted"/>
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      </request_structure>
   </response>
</communication>

<communication protocol="cg://ara9975.lka18383">
   <bootstrap interop="standard" value="true"/>
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   <message type="response"/>
   <datatype name="tmp_enum_1" type="enum">
      <member value="animal"/>
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   <data>
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         <datetime type="local">
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            <time hour="19" minute="12" second="42"/>
         </datetime>
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                  <eta estimation_method="trend_analysis" noise_filter="active" value="imminent"/>
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         </notification>
      </event>
      <action type="translocation">
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not.jpg
Caesar

III, i, and I'm still here.

It pisses me off to think that I was going to fall for it - that I was going to let some doubt and fear overshadow the amazing things we've managed to do here over the past several weeks. I worked hard, man, and for what? For you all to bail on me?

I don't think so. I took a little trip, and I think it's quite clear, I was right all along. We saw something, something undeniably related to the whomp on our computers. We sat on our butts, people. We allowed this data to overwhelm us and we never really questioned it. We just sat back and said, "Pass the remote, dude."

Out there, in the open air and away from the hum of the fan, or the whirr of the processor, Random and I saw things you'd never expect, except on Ripley's Believe It or Not. 

I'm back, and don't you forget it. I am not intimidated, I am not scared, and I don't really care if you stick around for the ride or not, any more. You all had your chances, and while I think it's stupid that your skills are going to waste with the scripting you'll most likely go back to now that you've left this project hanging, I am not going to hang onto the hope at this point.

If anything, I'll share a little. If it helps. So WHAT if you don't trust me? Random's golden, and he saw the same things I saw?

Are you on board, or not?

not2.jpg

Caesar

Why "caesar"? Well, probably not for the reasons you'd expect. 

It takes a unique freak to be a real pop culture junkie. On today's 'net, any jerko can slavishly track the progress of the latest Tarantino flick on $movie_portal_website or debate the merits of the $elves_and_orcs_ahoy trilogy in exhaustive, mind-numbing, spec-wallowing detail on some fanboy forum somewhere. This is all well and good, and there are definitely hipster silent bob type wannabes who would leech off of the realtime adulation of their fans and who are secretly checking the boards for anything the reviews didn't say. And yeah, that works for some, but not for everybody. I was looking for something.....I dunno....purer. 

See, I got bored with what modern film had to offer a little while ago. So I decided to go back through the years, a decade at a time, and see what came BEFORE everyone started spending all their time focussing on the cash cow of Hollywood and what cinematographer did what - basically, when people just went to the movies to see a story, and to be entertained. And what I found, instead of this constant parade of meta-archetypes that are full of irony and self-consciousness, were several generations of real, genuine, natural badasses. Celluloid men for whom self-confidence came naturally because they KNEW that the world would be out there staring at them, not because their publicists and agents TOLD them so to pump up their ego. 

In the 1970's, I found Fred Williamson. The Godfather of Harlem. Pure swagger. 

In the 1950's, an embarrassment of riches. Sure, no one remembers Harold Tasker or Louis Calhern today, but look at their supporting casts! Icons all: Brando. Gielgud. Jimmy Mason. Heston (although I got SOMETHING I'd like to pry outta his cold dead fingers....) 

In the 1930's, the mother lode: Edward G. Robinson. This guy resonated with me so hard it hurt. Little guy, pissed on by society, won't roll over but decides he's gonna play tough anyway. Just squirrelly little Emanuel Goldenberg, up there against the rest of the world. "Mother of mercy...is this the end of Rico?" The gangster is the perfect blueprint for today's 'net cowboy. 

They don't make 'em like Robinson anymore. Name me one modern actor that has that blend of thuggish panache and pure stubbornness. Well, maybe Pantoliano. Which, now that I think of it, he was a Caesar too, once, wasn't he?

not3.jpg

Caesar

Too many years of scanning network backbones by the glow of my monitor. Too many late night pizza feasts, becoming the poster child for poor diet. It’s too much trouble, but when there’s nothing else in the house, coffee blacker than the blackness of my screen. Too much working myself right up to the edge of that adrenaline rush, finding one last neglected port to worm into. Eventually it caught up with me. Yeah yeah, I know they say it's genetics, but I can't help feeling like I'm paying for living a normal teenage life. 

I don't remember the first time, but I remember the ugliest. I was four hours into a marathon session of Half-Life on the 'Gamex - SO much cooler, btw, when you play it with the mod chip installed - and the next thing I knew, I was on the floor. She had her arms locked tight around me and was screaming something in my face. "STOP IT! STOP IT! PLEASE!" It was a grand mal, lucky I hadn't bitten my tongue or gouged my face on the side of the coffee table going down or something, and it's not like the two of them hadn't seen it a million times before. But it had been getting better - hell, I had been on the Dilantin for something like six months by that point which was doing NOTHING to help my acne - and I guess the 'rents never expected to see another seizure that bad. 

I was laid up for five straight days. Treated like a king, they waited on me hand and foot while I laid in bed and sipped juice and avoided strobing monitors and tried not to look pathetic. All the time, I was just itching to get back online. 1337 h4x0rs have to stay wired, or our batteries run down. Scratch was just itching to give me shit for time spent off the grid, totally. 

Monday I played catchup to see that my firewall had taken a solid pounding while I was playing sad little invalid. I figured, okay, what goes around comes around. The urchins probably wanted to see what the hell I was keeping on MY root for a change, and were keeping themselves busy this whole time. Little did they know that instead of the thousands of game keys and ripped .mp3s and porn archives they might expect, all they would have found was a bunch of diagrams and Metapoint slideshows for my Civil War Gettysburg battle recreation project. 

Outflank. Rush. Retreat. It's like chess or football.....some people don’t get this game, but it’s fascinating to me. Lose the battle, win the war. 

Anyway, so I scanned the attack logs on the firewall. Much to my surprise, instead of the usual sneering from Scratch and 1337 attitudes from the rest, all I saw were the closest thing you could ever get to warm fuzzies from people you would prolly never meet in fleshspace. "come back come back five and dime whatever, C!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!", said one from mello (ha ha, I am poor diet poster child, he is Ritalin poster child), " urchins are lost without you!!!!!!!!!! BACK BACK BACK NOW NOW!!" 

Someday I will be ruler of the world, and I will outlaw exclamation point keys on keyboards. But at that second, plugging back in, I knew I was home again. 

And it felt okay. 

There was a bit of odd news on my return which also may have something to do with it. A new coworker was named employee of the month. While I'm happy for her, it just struck me as odd. Not only is she new to the company, she's from my department and I'm not even all that sure of what she does for us. She's in the department, and she shows up for departmental meetings, but she doesn't seem to have any of the typical responsibilities. It just all seems out of place and I'm not sure what to make of it. Why her? Why our department (again!)? She is a great girl and has become someone that I can count on. But that's socially, not professionally. An employee of the month should be someone that represents the company in an outstanding fashion. She just does not, at least as far as I can tell.

Speaking of her, she was a fantastic help while I was away. Not only did she watch over my place, she welcomed my dog into her home. Laika almost didn't seem happy to see me! I had to call her twice before she came bounding into arms. Next time maybe I should board her. At least then I can't even get out the first syllable before she attacks me. The home was all in one piece, mail piled neatly on my desk. Heck, if I didn't know better, I'd think she even straightened up a bit for me.

I'm glad to be home, though I do wish that I was still away from everything. It was nice to be able to think about things without any distractions. Now I'm home and I'm still as confused as ever and even a bit scared. 

I suppose that I just wish that I was still away from here and in the heart of everything else. It was an amazing vacation and I finally experienced my first "anomaly". I'm not completely sure of what all happened, though it was definitely something. I'll upload my notes to my archives as soon as I get a moment to get them all in order. Part of me is convinced that this is a hoax or some massive joke on me. If any of you are in on it, please let me know. I'm a bit spooked, I'll admit it and we can all move on.

There is definitely evidence that this is a hoax. In both Alabama and Washington, a man was present for the events. However, I cannot for the life of me figure out how he could have done the things. Sure, a few can be explained as illusions, but they were so real. Others cannot be explained at all. Yet if he wasn't behind them, why was he there?

I did not experience the event in AL, yet I was right in the center of it in WA. It started when a few bats flew through a tree like it was the night sky. That startled me and I fell through my tent and wound up with half my body in the tent and half of it out of the tent. It was as real as anything else that I've seen or experienced, but I suppose it could have been some crazy trick. What gets me the most is my PDA. I asked the man a few questions and he didn't respond. Yet when I went to write some notes, there were new files on the PDA; files that I did not put there. Ok, he could have put them there. Wireless connection and all of that. However, the files turned out to be the answers to the questions that I asked him in XML. I did not see him with a PDA or any device. I did not see him type. So, how did that happen? Was there someone else involved? How could it have happened so quickly?

I have since seen this man on several occasions. He's always at a great distance, but he's there. So, I begin to wonder if I have a stalker. It's very possible. Heck, I tell all of you virtual strangers quite a bit about me. I suppose it wouldn't be hard to find out more. Yet, he's always at a distance and so I've not been too worried. However, tonight he showed up at my home. He knows where I live and this time he was rather close to me. That's troubling. Again he wouldn't answer my questions. When he left, I checked my PDA. And there they were, his responses. Now seriously, if this is one of you, stop it. I bought into it. Cool little hoax. Well done. I want to know your secrets....how did you do it! If it's not one of you, who or what is it? What does it mean?

Well, I've rambled on long enough and I'm late to go pick up Kat. Hopefully a good movie will help me get my mind off of this.

Beth 

November 06, 2003

ethan.thenekodas.com

November 07, 2003

ethan.thenekodas.com

November 08, 2003

dina.thenekodas.com

November 09, 2003

dina.thenekodas.com

November 10, 2003

dina.thenekodas.com