~ happy martin luther king, jr day! eleven more days until the final review. then its time to see if there is more to los angeles than dozing off…at 4am…behind the wheel…on the 10…at 80 miles per hour…to the sounds of ego trip.

~ more of the same old spider-man movie news, but this article at entertainment weekly http://www.ew.com/ew/report/0,6595,94826,00.html contains an almost worthless photo of tobey maguire in the suit.

~ thesis quote: ‘i haven’t had a tv in four years….i’d rather read proust.’

~ as our hardware woes have been alleviated by the installation of two 40gb titan hard disks, we are, for the present, not in any dire need for new machinery. so, any macintosh hardware that has been slated for delivery to the angry red planet should be ‘donated’ instead to rasterboy enterprises [w] (please send only g4 or above).

~ we have not verified yet the authenticity of this piece of writing, forwarded to us by from the ground [w], but its lucid and inspiring beauty should be shared regardless.

the angry red planet wishes the best for sr. marquez:

“Gabriel Garcia Marquez has retired from public life due to health reasons: cancer of the lymph nodes. It seems that it is getting worse. He has sent this farewell letter to his friends. Please read and forward to any who might enjoy it. This is possibly, sadly, one of the last gifts to humanity from a true master. This short text, written by one of the most brilliant Latin Americans in recent times, is truly moving:”

“If for an instant God were to forget that I am a rag doll and gifted me with a piece of life, possibly I wouldn’t say all that I think, but rather I would think of all that I say. I would value things, not for their worth but for what they mean. I would sleep little, dream more, understanding that for each minute we close our eyes we lose sixty seconds of light.

“I would walk when others hold back, I would wake when others sleep. I would listen when others talk, and how I would enjoy a good chocolate ice cream! If God were to give me a piece of life, I would dress simply, throw myself face first into the sun, baring not only my body but also my soul. My God, if I had a heart, I would write my hate on ice, and wait for the sun to show. Over the stars I would paint with a Van Gogh dream a Benedetti poem, and a Serrat song would be the serenade I’d offer to the moon. With my tears I would water roses, to feel the pain of their thorns, and the red kiss of their petals…

“My god, if I had a piece of life… I wouldn’t let a single day pass without telling the people I love that I love them. I would convince each woman and each man that they are my favorites, and I would live in love with love. I would show men how very wrong they are to think that they cease to be in love when they grow old, not knowing that they grow old when they cease to be in love! To a child I shall give wings, but I shall let him learn to fly on his own. I would teach the old that death does not come with old age, but with forgetting. So much have I learned from you, oh men…

“I have learned that everyone wants to live on the peak of the mountain, without knowing that real happiness is in how it is scaled. I have learned that when a newborn child squeezes for the first time with his tiny fist his father’s finger, he has him trapped forever. I have learned that a man has the right to look down on another only when he has to help the other get to his feet. From you I have learned so many things, but in truth they won’t be of much use, for when I keep them within this suitcase, unhappily shall I be dying.”

-Gabriel Garcia Marquez

~ updates have been coming slowly. it is not that there is lack of abundance of events, but rather, they have come with such senses-shattering mediocrity that we at the angry red planet are reeling – slowly, but reeling – in their wake. life since the ‘holidays’ has been not dreary, but hazy. the east coast weather vengefully laid waste to the immune system of our entire staff, which have grown as lazy as our socal dress code. after a foray through the chilling rural and urban south, we took a flight on delta which did not include the pure vegetarian meals which we had ordered weeks in advance. there was not a 40gb titan hard disk waiting at our offices, despite our hardware supplier’s promises; bitter calls to them revealed that it is on back order, and could not have been shipped, as they had stated it had been earlier. fighting the cold for a few more days left us fumbling through the thesis work – into which no progress has been made – so that when our radiator hose burst on manchester boulevard at 9.30am, we stopped for a few moments to debate about the futility vs. profit of breaking into gasping sobs on the side of the road. instead, we opted for taking the machine to a garage, and we placed our bets…

~ december log has been added to the others in the archive.

~ the days have been less than certain at the angry red planet since the final thesis review. the energy from the office and its environs have been sapped by the departure of many for the ‘holidays’; problems of a technological sort have been plaguing our hardware. we intended to work diligently through ‘the break’ to remedy the situation, and to report on all case scenarios, be they thesis, los angeles, or georgia…

~ though we ended up investing far greater than one hour into the project, the angry red stool (v1.0) is now complete. the reviews are in: ‘your rendering looks better than the real thing about tenfold’.

~ if we can scratch up one five cent piece, there will be enough coin in the angry red planet coffers for the second black russian bagel this week.

~ we all got a lot of sleep last night, but *yawn*…is there a president-elect yet?

~ we still wonder what it was like to listen to guns’n’roses when they were still popular.

~ not much progress at the angry red planet this week, as we have been introduced to the yahoo! version of the game ‘go‘. if you think you can muster up a challenge, or if you just want watch as the hours of our lives spin down the drain, look for raise_the_red_flag in the ‘go’ room, and bring your best game.

~ “..i don’t celebrate bullshit thanksgiving…” -ice-t

~ the more and more i read a certain letter about me, the more and more i feel like the psychopath they purport me to be. how else could i do so much wrong with so little intent and no awareness?

~ for those who could not make it, my midterm review went extremely well.

~ no stress for 12 hours.

~ redhat 6.2 seems to be running with a limited number of flaws. we can not truly tell, however, as the monitor is not installed or configured correctly. it seems impossible to attempt to change the settings, for touching anything causes the screen to fragment until it is completely unreadable. during installation, there was not a choice for our monitor (packard bell 1020), and ‘generic’ does not seem to be cutting it. if someone can offer a solution short of reinstallation, please contact us.

~ despite the superstitions which surround today’s date, we retooled the los angeles.

~ hardware update 1: future linux machine still in suspended animation, as it awaits resuscitation through the means of redhat 6.2, for 7.0 was explained to be too riddled with bugs.

~ hardware update 2: current mazda machine still in suspended animation, as it awaits resuscitation through the means of a ‘professional’ mechanic, for our staff is too overwhelmed with other occupations to fully address the mazda’s issues.