| [Saturday, October 3, 1999] I noticed two new interviews with ex-Beatles on the net recently. A Billboard interview with George Harrison discussing the 'Yellow Submarine' project and an interview with Paul discussing his new album 'Run devil run'. I read the interview with George (I'm printing the one with Paul as I write these words) and I wasn't too impressed. One of the appeals George seem to have (at least in my opinion) is his relative obscurity. We seem to know everything there is to know about Paul and even more about John. George, the 'Quiet Beatle' maintained some appeal and mystery. You always felt that there's more into this guy than we know. And then you read this interview and think that maybe not... |
| [Thursday, September 23, 1999] One of the nice things about the songs in David Bowie's incredible album 'Ziggy Stardust' is the unclear words he murmurs, usually towards end of the song. For example - the 'wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am' in 'Suffragette City' , the 'Just watch me now' in 'Star'. And there was this quite whisper at the end of 'Lady Stardust' (one of the best songs in the album) that I never understood what it meant. Well now I do… "Get some pussy now...". I read it in the beautiful 5years.com site. Definitely worth a visit. |
| [Wednesday, September 22, 1999] On the plane from London to New York I met the nicest lady. I usually don't initiate conversations with the passengers that sit next to me, but she had such a strange accent that I had to ask her where she was from. It turned out she was Scottish and she originally planned to travel to San Francisco but since there was no place on the plane she decided to go to New York for two days. We talked about Scotland and about prominent Scots. She showed me pictures of her kids - Andrew and Joseph who's 4 months old. I think her name is Allison Hutchinson or something like that. She's from Glasgow and was born on 6/25 (I'll skip the year in case she ever gets to read this) (all from taking a peek at her passport while she was filling the immigration papers)... |
| [Sunday, August 29, 1999] The lowest temperature ever recorded on earth was -129F recorded in 1983 at the Russian Base Vostok in Antarctica... |
| [Tuesday, August 24, 1999] Wow, it's been awhile since I last wrote for this site (almost a month). I guess that the lack of public interest has a discouraging affect on me. I finished reading Robin Cook's new book - 'Vector' not a bad book. Not a great one either. This book was sort of a last chance I gave him after his previous horrible book 'Toxin'. Maybe one of the reasons I like 'Vector' was that it happens in Manhattan - a familiar environment to me by now. |
| [Tuesday, August 24, 1999] I've been trying to list my site in Yahoo for so long, and so far I've been unsuccessful. I wish I knew how they pick the sites they index. My guess - randomly. I've seen some sites that made the index under the 'Personal home pages' that were no more than three lines on a white page. 'This will be the home page of...' and meanwhile my well crafted site is still out... |
| [Thursday, July 29, 1999] Maybe there are some other people like me out there. People that face the same awkward situation. People that have, well how shall I put it - decent knowledge about the Internet. People who can write HTML, and decorate it with some JavaScript. People who can configure a web server, build a nice site, and even add some e-Commerce, secure transactions and Java. And yet, despite the technical knowledge, these people have no idea how to capitalize on this knowledge. How to make the bug bucks. I received quite a few offers from people who wanted me to help them build their multi million dollar site. I've been offered all kinds of partnerships and promises of instant richness. "You can have your first million before you're 25" I've been told (although I was 28 at the time...) I've heard so many ideas. Someone offered me to build a limousine reservation site, a Deli site, party supplies, pet food, educational software (I must admit that some of these offers came from the same person...) but still - I can't seem to come up with a good idea of my own. Maybe it's just an illusion that the Internet can make you a billionaire over night. It's one thing to have your personal homepage on tripod.com and it's whole different thing to launch the next amazon.com. maybe people don't realize it. It seems so easy but it's not. And now they're talking about the 'Second Generation' of Internet companies. The same people who formed the 'First Generation' will soon be emancipated from their 'Golden Handcuffs' - the four-year biding stocks options and use the millions they made to form partnerships and startup alliances. And I still have no idea... |
| [Tuesday, July 13, 1999] Last weekend I've seen two new movies: 'An Ideal husband' and 'Eternity and a day'. The first is a funny Victorian comedy; the second is a Greek tragedy. But I liked both. Before I saw 'An Ideal Husband' I read a bit about the movie and the filmmaking process. I don't do that usually and that's too bad because it really enhances the experience. 'Eternity and a day' is a different story. I didn't read about the movie before I watched it, and that was a big mistake. The movie is very symbolic and hard to understand. Only after reading the review I understood what was going on there. But I liked it nevertheless... |
| [Wednesday, June 23, 1999] Here's a link to a nice Paul McCartney site, in a second thought - the site is not all that nice, but I like the news section where you can read the latest about Paul (although I must admit that I don't really 'dig' his latest activities with the genetically modified food, the painting exhibition in Germany and the new Linda McCartney bike race). I personally go there and seek hints for an upcoming tour, look for recent pictures, and in general - check on an old friend. |
| [Tuesday, June 22, 1999] Happy Birthday To Me... I'm 29 today and that's quite an age... I'm really not all that excited about my birthday (after all - I've had 29 of those already) and probably the only reason I mention it here is because of someone, who happens to be an avid reader of my site (who happens to be the only avid reader of my site...) forgot the occasion... so if you read this, well... - you know what to do... ... |
| [Saturday, June 19, 1999] Stephan Covey has a new book - "living the seven habits". I'm not going to buy this book. I'm not even going to take it from the library. Stephan Covey is a living example of a person who made so much with so little. He has a few basic, common sense ideas (seven, to be precise) that he spreads over countless books, articles, magazines, tapes and products. I would put his picture in the dictionary next to the term 'Commercialized'. I doubt that he has something new and refreshing to say, and I'm not even curious. If you trace a slight bitterness in my tone, you're not entirely wrong. I was deeply impressed by the '7 habits'. It was the first of it's kind that I read and it made lots of sense to me. The problem was that I kept on reading... and the more I read the clearer it became to me that none of the brilliant, common sense ideas are original... |
| [Tuesday, June 15, 1999] I saw Van Morrison in concert last night. It was beautiful (despite the rain, the wind and the pricey ticket ($40 for a seat from which Van Morrison looked like a black round ant). He started with 'Moon Dance'; clearly to get it out of the way... and then the magic began. For 90 minutes he gave an amazing concert. His covers to 'Georgia' and 'Just like a woman' were enchanting! As brilliant as the show was, some bitter taste remained after he refused to come back for an anchor. I wasn't really surprised since I read somewhere that he's not the nicest guy in Ireland... |
| [Saturday, June 12, 1999] I use the tool that tripod offers to monitor the traffic in this site. It's nice, simple and easy to use. You can see how many people visited your site, when and where they come from. Two essential pieces of information are missing - how did they find the page and how much time did they spend browsing the page. Sometimes it gets a bit frustrating. For example - the page titled 'Happy Birthday' was largely ignored since I published it four months ago. Ten days ago the counter still showed a humiliating 4 visits. Now it reads 33! Most of the new visitors come from the UK. And I have no idea why... |
| [Friday, June 11, 1999] The two teenagers were pacing down the street on their way to school. I started my car and began driving in their direction. I was getting closer and closer to them but they showed no sign of clearing the way. On the contrary - they slightly moved to the center of the road and were now walking directly towards my car. The road was narrow and I really had nowhere to turn. What were they trying to do? What was the point? - As much as I thought about it I could not understand. Eventually, as I passed by them I slightly veered to the right. They won... |
