The Circus

The world is such a small place I thought to myself, thinking back about all the places I've been and travels I took as a young boy.

Things were always normal, from my point of view anyways. I remember, the midnight special, wolf man jack and the odd, very odd acts on this show like David Bowie and Alice Cooper. Nobody is really like that, I thought, it's just a show, an act.

Rainbow hair, leather, lace and chains abound.  Red lights, prostitutes and every imaginable color of accessories in between. Piccadilly was a learning experience that a boy of my age could have waited a few years to see and for sure to understand.

One of my favorite memories, coming from a typical small town USA upbringing in Texas,  was a church sponsored vacation to London at the early age of 14.

Traveling with a friend of the same age, we were the only teenagers on this trip and it was necessary for us to "buddy up" with some of the adult travelers. A older gentleman who happened to be the father of twins, our girlfriends at the time, seemed like the best choice. After all, we both had already been through the predate work over with Bobby, have my girls home by 10:00 and so on . There was a relationship between us and some sort of trust but, Bobby was a character, jokes, pranks and always something funny to say.

After landing in London and sleeping off our jet-lag,  Bobby suggested a trip to see the circus. Every young boy  gets excited to see the circus, "of course, let's go" and off to the subway we went.

I remember riding on the train thinking, clowns, elephants ... The trapeze, are we there yet?

After a short ride, off the train, up the steps and to the street. As we emerged from the subway, my eyes grew in amazement, it was the midnight special in real life.

Rainbow hair, leather, lace and chains abound.  Red lights, prostitutes and every  imaginable color of accessories in between.

Bobby said, "well boys, Piccadilly".

Myrna's present

"Good morning, Jim!" These three words has been Myrna’s diurnal greeting for me for the past eight years every time I hurry myself to my cube. She has always articulated these words in a lilting manner, jovial and earnest, typical of any secretary, but better. Sometimes she appears a bit drawn due to the rigors of the job, but the small furrows on her forehead belies her heartfelt demeanor. She always fails in this department, and the “Good morning, Jim!” mantra always sounded sincere whatever her mood.

“Morning, Myrna!” I paid the greeting back. In my first few months at the job, I graduated from a simple nod, to a keen morning salutation with a plastered smile, then to a reciprocal warm greeting. A short chat lasting about 30 seconds has been the order of the day since then until it evolved into a minute of small talk.

“Now, Chairman Mao loves Disney,” I said as I revealed my peculiar fascination with the Mickey Mao doll teetering on the edge of her table. “I bought that when I spent a week in Hong Kong four years ago,” she replied, her hands clasped in eagerness. Transparent and open, Myrna was never reserved.

One time, I saw her back from a two week vacation in Russia. At the back corner of her table is the new addition, a Russian doll tactically placed far from any invading hands. The telephone, pile of folders and the computer monitor hindered its location. “This is a Matryoshka doll. Got it as a present from a cousin in St. Petersburg,” she told me while lining up the nested dolls, all eight of them, from the biggest to the smallest.

She was never irritated nor sulky, but this time her smile cannot obscure her jadedness. “I’m thinking about early retirement,” she opined. She then added, “I just got diagnosed with muscular dystrophy after my vacation. The diagnosis was not definite but I think my doctor was just being euphemistic for the meantime.” All these admission by her without me asking.

Not that I don’t care. Our relationship may be casual, but those years of small talk with her resulted in a form of friendship. There is no cure for such a rare degenerative disease. Luckily somehow, the type of muscular dystrophy that she developed does not progress too fast. However, help and understanding are immediate matters to a person who is anticipating a life-threatening certainty. These are crucial as much as curative drugs and therapies.

From one hour of advanced login time at work, this progressed into a 15-minute pre-login time. She now hurries herself to her workstation. Her inward disposition drastically deteriorated, while her attitude towards her colleagues never changed. I could only empathize that much and never fully understand.

One night as I was browsing through countless newsgroups on the Internet, I stumbled upon this muscular dystrophy support group. It was a small group, perhaps with just a handful of members scattered around the world. The next day with a grande latte on one hand and a small piece of paper on another, I handed both to Myrna. “Go check this out,” I prodded her while pointing to the note.

Later that night, she phoned me to thank about my small contribution. “You don’t know how much this means to me,” she thanked me profusely after a half an hour exchange with another person with the same condition. Luckily, there was one from Galveston, 80 miles from where she lives. I could sense the excitement in her voice. It was as if she already underwent several therapy sessions. “I will be on a group chat with the rest of them next week,” she announced. Or maybe she is just being a normal woman who needs a constant confidante. One thing’s certain, sometimes letting out your pent up worries is already the drug that you need. It’s catharsis at work.

One day while hurrying myself to my cube I saw Myrna almost racing with me towards our respective eight-hour niches. Her calculated gait looked airy and easy. Though I am sure her condition has worsened a bit, her outward appearance has remained the same, always genuine and wholehearted. She does not hurry herself anymore, but she does not login an hour in advance either. She just takes her time. “I found three other people like me here in Texas. We just might meet up next month, hopefully,” she told me. Then she blurted out, “Goodbye in a few weeks!” Surprised, I sported a wide grin.

By the end of the month, a small paper bag greeted me as I entered my cube. Inside is a Matryoshka doll with a note saying, “Thank you very much!”

I owe my left ear to Usenet

Let me explain.
When I was a child I Swam in cold dirty ponds, made
mud pie full of worms and Lord knows what else after the rains came,
I've been caught tasting my share of bugs (don't lie, you did too), my
brother and I would make formula one tracks under our broken rusty
trampoline to race our hot wheels on, not to mention the obsession I had
for fire crackers...


Looking back on it I was a renegade child, where were my parents do
you ask? Oh, they were there, well ma was. Fixing dinner, cleaning
house, trying to keep up with three kids what a task. My father worked
all day, by the time he got home us kids were innocent as lambs.


I'm sure it comes as no surprise to you readers, that when I was 7 I
fell ill with fever. I'm not talking about a fever that is fixed by ice
baths or sweating in out under the covers. I was ill, ill with a 106
fever and delusions. After a few days the left side of my face began to
swell. I had a ring around my entire ear that imitated ring worm but on a
much larger scale, like a do-nut that had a bright red glow and radiated
heat.


The doctors tried drops first, then drains followed by pills. They
kept on sending me home with further instructions, with no avail. After
two weeks both the doctors and my mother were at a loss for remedies.
With the fear of surgery, ma searched high and low in books, calling
friends, the internet. Then, stumbling along the Usenet
alt.binaries.advise she was able to communicate with people from all
around the globe. Shortly after chatting with a gentlemen from Europe
she frantically ran out to local health food store and bought up their
supply of ear candles. After getting the approval of my father she lit
candle after candle pulling the gunk from my puss infected ear along
with the build up from my sinuses. Turns out I had a tear in my canal
and with all the inflammation none of the medical remedies could reach
the source of the problem to resolve it.


To wrap things up, I was back to making mud pies and all the other
harmful, dangerous and care free games in days. Thank you Usenet for
restoring my ear drum. I am currently a 23 year old surgery free Big
Kid!

Controlling Child Pornography on the Usenet

Andrew Cuomo stands out against Usenet

This an article that I wrote many years back and I posted it on an article site to generate traffic for my Usenet website. Someone that worked for President Obama read it and decided to post it on the Presidents website. It generated an incredible amount of visitors to my website. Here it is in it's entirety.

It all started when a network was designed with the initial purpose of exchanging text messages between connected university computers. When the ability to exchange non-textual files became possible, this network began to flourish. Today it is known as the Usenet. The dark side of the immensely popular Usenet is the advantage that enables the users to boldly distribute illegal images. The problem: distributing these sorts of files can make contributions to child pornography easy and anonymous.  So it is easily understandable that anonymity serves as the key for such criminals, which they feasibly use as a protective shell. The catch-22 is that the complete censorship of child pornography on Usenet cannot be implemented easily since it is somewhat impossible without banning Usenet completely. Why just strike out a war against Usenet when the percentage of child pornography is basically small. The cutting truth is, Child pornography can never be simply rooted out and finished forever.

Amidst darkness, the scintillating hope is that lately many Usenet communities have been reported to be curbed after important measures observed at the government level. Internet Service providers have been forced to shut down Usenet access at many places in order to cut down the incessant demand of child porn. Cuomo crackdown is a well-known open was happening against the erotic newsgroups of Usenet. “NY State attorney Andrew Cuomo has managed to get two more ISP’s to join his ‘Crusade’ against Usenet child porn. “(Roettgers, 2008). America Online is among the ISP’s who have agreed to do something about blocking child pornography and once it denies access to certain newsgroups, the Usenet is sure to become a less attractive magnet for cyber criminals. Another fact supporting the rampage against Usenet is that the Recording Industry Association of America sued Usenet for Millions of dollars, criticizing it as the network for illicit file sharing. Still saying that cyber censorship alone can play a vital role in stemming down child pornography is not actually true, since a large number of new Usenet groups are created daily. 

In comparison to all the opponents who suggest the ban of Usenet, some facts still suggest this mayhem to be a part of hyped criticism against this network. After all Usenet is not out and out about child pornography. Sure enough, Usenet hugely became a favored passage for the ones exchanging illicit material after it was superseded by the popularity of World Wide Web. Still very few out of the thousands of newsgroups supports child pornography. The complete banning of a huge network because of some black sheep is just not fair. There are thousands of useful discussion groups on Usenet, banning of which would mean a big loss for everyone. Nothing significant can be done about the criminals posting illegal images. We have to do our part to strictly avoid promoting child pornography. In the long run, the development of self-morality is what is needed to discourage the ones trading in child pornography.

Censorship its self must be initiated at the provider level, Millions of files are downloaded to the Usenet daily. Without over burdening the Usenet providers what can be done to deter child pornography?

1.     Only support newsgroups that are on the up and up. Many providers have lists of hundreds of thousands of newsgroups. What does it hurt to only have 85,000?

2.     Employ filters that can scan the posts file name and messages for keywords that pertain to child pornography.

3.     Support anti child pornography groups and let your members and the world know you are a part of these groups.

4.     Pre view data before it is made available on your server.

For Usenet to survive in the future, uncensored Usenet will have to become a thing of the past. 

Gregg Fikes is the owns a Usenet website due to open in fall 2008. 

Usenet browser

Usenet saved my brew

My daughter wrote this story and I posted it on my website. It got over a 100,00 views. A really good read. 

 I've worked in bars, after bar, serving beer, drinking beer, loving beer (or so i thought). It wasn't until I began working for a local craft beer bar that I learned what beer is. I mean Real beer. I only thought I knew beer before, turns out there is a whole other side of beer than what you can get in your 7-11's beverage isle.

Have you ever felt overwhelmed with the many styles and types of beer to choose from? I know I once did.  The fact of the matter is. there are quite literally hundreds of different ones out there. Let's take a look at what beer is actually made of so you get a better understanding of the varieties available.

The basic building blocks of beer are the four ingredients: water, malted barley, hops and yeast.

Here's the simplest overview, the factors that go into deciding the style of beer to be made is the type and amount of malt being used, the method used when adding the hops, and the strain of yeast used to ferment the beer. To get an even broader range of beer types, brewers will use specialty grains (malts) in a certain way that adds color and flavor to the beer without adding fermentable sugars. In specialty (craft) beers, the sky's the limit. Spices, fruit juices, candy, and just about anything else you can think of go into the brew. Beer has been separated into three separate categories: lagers, ales, and the rest fall into a category called craft beers. And let me tell you, once you taste craft you never go back!

I've recently moved to a small town where not only craft beer is unknown it's impossible to find. So, I began my quest of home brewing. I knew it would be a task but. I just couldn't live without my beloved smooth quality beer and being a lady I never settle for less than I deserve. Needless to say, on my mission I went from the local Library to the good ol' Internet but found nothing useful or instructional. I was feeling down right depressed. Then I remembered the Usenet my father used for work when I was a child. Sure enough it was my savior all thanks to rec.crafts.brewing on the Usenet. I was able to not only learn about the different brewing techniques but recipes I can use for the different season or possibly Christmas gifts? Also, I was able to get answers to questions I had along the way, such as sterilizing bottles, storage, pressure and labeling.

I can say as a matter for fact, that I will be using this very informative resource, the Usenet, for my many brewing sessions to come. This little lady owes here happiness to Usenet; I would be very lonely if I wasn't able to sip on my home-brewed craft beer, as I'm doing now.