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ryan and my speech at the punk town meeting

Voting as a “punk” priority

2000 was the first year that i thought seriously about voting. but, i shared a viewpoint with many many americans that was basically one of
apathy. i knew no one could possibly win who would in any way reflect my
feelings or intentions. sure it was interesting to see a somewhat serious
green party candidate.. but there was really no hope for election. in the
end, i didn’t vote, because i decided i could do little for my cause, i
regret that. i was in india near the time of the election. something
happened there that shocked me… an older woman, in an extremely small
village close to pakistan, came up to me crying.. asking me if i was an
american and how i could allow such a thing to happen.. she was pulling on
my arms and my shirt, sobbing and asking how bush could have won. i was
taken back. it made me realize that though to some of us it’s comparing
apples to apples, the outcome of elections can make a greater impact on a
global community then i ever expected. If you tell me that presidents,
Democrat and Republican, right-leaning and left-leaning have all made
horrible policy decisions, I will be the first to agree with you. If you
tell me that from a policy standpoint, John Kerry is every bit as bad (if
not worse) than George W. Bush, I’ll agree with that too. But If you tell me that any of that means that this election, or elections in general, don’t matter or that I shouldn’t be concerned with them, or that I shouldn’t participate in them – that, I don’t agree with.

in April of 2001, i was horribly alarmed by something i saw and heard and it sticks in my mind. that was when the US spy plane was being detained by
china for flying in illegal airspace and killing a chinese pilot. Bush
formally announced that the USA is not in the habit of apology. though a
formal apology was eventually produced for china.. this idea terrified me.
i couldn’t believe it, is this not a simple rule we teach to children? to
apologize. this term has been nothing but a continuation of this disgusting
cowboy attitude. I think that removing the Bush administration from office
is, in the next six months, the single most important political objective.
it’s not because his policies suck, US policy sucks. It’s because the
ATTITUDES that they express and the attitudes that they validates in people
are, to be put simply, shitty. They’re mean spirited, and they’re out of
touch with the reality of so many people’s lives, and they’re the polar
opposite of everything that I find to be good or decent or important or
exciting about people or community or living life.

what’s worse, these attitudes trickle down. recently, i was driving to
visit my family in wisconsin and had to stop my car because something on the radio made me so upset. it was during the time that the prison injustices in iraq were taking place and the ever so popular american beheading was all over the internet. over and over on the show i heard people, americans, throw around the phrase “those pesky geneva conventions” indicating that these basic rules for how to treat humans.. were stopping us from our battle on terror. i couldn’t believe this. i knew things in my country had gone too far, but this, to me, was a whole new level

I read in the newspaper the other day, a quotation that for me, embodies the things that I find so frightening about these attitudes. Eric Bost, Bush’s Agriculture Department undersecretary for food and nutrition service (which is the part of the government that coordinates things like food stamp programs, school lunch programs, and other programs that provide food to children and low-income people said, In response to reports which indicate that more and more Americans are in need of assistance when it comes to having enough food to eat, “There’s a bump, but how much of that is due to people taking the easy way out?”

I think that Bush needs to be voted out of office not because his
successor’s policies will make life better for hungry Americans or the
people in Iraq or workers in the third world or people who want to marry
others of the same sex or women who want to get abortions. but, because
his attitudes stand in the way of progress of any kind at any level. I
think that the attitudes that people in any given community hold have a huge effect on the success of direct action like Food Not Bombs or a community institution like Mother Hubbard’s Cupboard, a food pantry which proceeds from this fest will benefit. When I think of things being “better” in this world, I feel like it takes more than just the handful of kids who serve food every week or the volunteers who give their time to community
institutions. It takes any given person having just a little bit more
awareness and concern for the people around them. And yeah, of course that
means that we should all still talk to our friends, families, and co-workers about these things. Of course we should still put up flyers and organize events and stand with placards on street corners. But just as those things send a message on a personal or community level, a message needs to be sent at a global level as well. I think that voting the Bush administration out of office can help to begin to send the message that it’s attitudes won’t be tolerated and that people in general are at least willing to have a different mindset towards political and social issues than the current one. but, more than anything, that what has happened these last four years is not OK with americans.

-Geoff Hing and Ryan Woods

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[WEDNESDAY, JULY 14 2004]

@ The Hiney Hole (715 E. 2nd St. Bloomington, Indiana)
7 PM – All Ages – Bring a donation for the touring bands!
812.336.4412 or geoff at terrorware dot com for info!

// ERIK PETERSEN (Philadelphia, PA)
Playing as “Mischief Brew”, this great singer-songwriter combines elements of folk, old-time, and punk music into nice acoustic songs. His music is a wonderful combination of talented (but not wanky) guitar-playing and colorful lyrics that go beyond typical folk “protest songs” or social commentary.

Website at http://www.fistolo.com/brew.html
MP3s at http://www.fistolo.com/hear.html

// EVIL ROBOT US’ (Buffalo, NY)
You could call this band featuring two acoustic guitars and drums folk-punk, but I would definitely put the emphasis on the punk. This is one of the most potent bands of the genre and they play raucous sing-along anthems.

Website at http://www.geocities.com/eruband
MP3 at http://www.audiostreet.net/evilrobotus

// BEST FRIENDS FOREVER (Minneapolis, MN)
Dance punk!

// PRETTY HOT (Bloomington, IN)
Pop punk with a little weirdness thrown in from members of Defiance, Ohio; Zumm Zumm; and “The Yellow Shirts” from Plan-It-X fest.

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I am on page 716 of quicksilver – The Exchange [ Between Threadneedle and Cornhill ]

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Prom Story

This is one of the most interesting things I’ve read lately on the web.

http://slate.msn.com//id/2102375/entry/2102511/

A mid-20’s journalist going to prom with an arbitrary 17-year-old date. I think that he captures the spectacle of prom really well, it’s interesting to compare his account with my prom experiences, and I think that he makes some interesting points about his feelings about being detached from adolescent youth culture.

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howto: getting free copies with cannon copiers

from http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2004/5/28/13714/7587:


Getting In

Everything in this article will require getting into the “control panel.” The control panel is where service men and installation men go to configure a copier, fix its problems, examine firmware, and look through error and jam logs. It offers complete control over the copier and its attachments.

You may think that it would be difficult to get into the control panel, or that it is password protected, but curiously this is not the case. Every Canon copier has an Additional Features or a “Guide” button – it has a asterisk on it, similar to that on the phone. To get into the control panel, in rapid succession, push the asterisk key, the 2 and 8 keys simultaneously, and the asterisk key again. If you did this correctly, you will see something like:

Service Mode
Copier
Feeder

Sorter (if its attached)
(other attachments, like edit pads)

There are lots of fun things you can do in the Feeder Service Mode, such as configure it to jam every time a customer or employee puts a piece of paper in. This is for another time, and another place. Hit the “Copier” button on the touchscreen. On the top of the screen, you see:

Display I/O Adjust Function Option Test Counter

These are similar to “tabs” in a modern OS GUI; pushing one of them will bring up a series of push buttons below it, a menu from which you can access various parts of the copier.

You are, by default, in the “Display” menu. You will likely see a variety of nonsensical abbreviations and other meaningless garbage; since buttons have a 6 character limit, abbreviations have to be taken. Any copier serviceman who is worth his weight will be know nearly instinctively what each of these buttons mean; to us, it is just nonsense.

Getting Free Copies

The copy machines you are using are configured in a certain way to use a coin operated slot, key card, or service key (such as those that Kinkos has). Through an interesting “feature” in the firmware, if the copy machine is configured to accept coins or keys, and no machine is hooked up for this, it will give copies for free. Unfortunately, this isn’t as helpful as it sounds; anyone with a remedial amount of intelligence who wants to get free copies will try unplugging the instrument first and foremost. As such, it is often impossible without a service key to unplug the apparatus.

Fortunately, there is a work-around. Go into “Service Mode” (using star-2 and 8-star), and push the “Option” tab. Underneath it, push “Acc”. A new menu will pop up. Hit the “Coin” button, and enter “0” on the keypad. Once you are done, hit “Enter” or “Apply” (you MUST do this after you change any field; otherwise it will reset the next button you push). Once you are done, hit reset until you are on the main screen. Voila – free copies!