Walking In A Network With Words

This Is A Good Day

There's a flower box just outside of my apartment building that I always treasure walking by. I always enjoy the sweet smell and vibrant colour of plants in full bloom. Any kind of plant seems beautiful to me. Marigolds growing in the part, daffodils poking out of the sidewalk, even grass has a unique beauty to me. The world coming into life seems to invigorate me and make me feel even more full as a woman.

On nice morning, like the ones we've been having lately, I will choose to leave my car in it's drab oil stained holding place, and take a leisurely stroll to work, passing by all the best things this city has to offer. People pleasantly greeting the day, kids running along in packs to fun places of their own design, the sounds of a city just on the verge of waking up. Even the breeze blowing through the tall building has a special place in my heart. The feeling as the air passing against, into, and through me brings me into contact with my body in a way that is more spiritual than sexual. The blissful feeling that I have walking through this city is one I wish I could hold onto for the entire day. Sadly, that can not be.

As I get to work, I enter another drab oil stained holding place. This time the holding place is stained with the oil that is drizzled on salads people are deceived into thinking is healthy for them. It's not that I don't like salads, it's that anything that big that contains that much cheese, bacon, and toxins is surely not healthy for you. Sadly, the putrid smell that emanates from those salads seems to diffuse into the surrounding area. I swear, everything around the offices I work in seems dead. The grass is not naturally green, unless you count the natural dyes in paint as being from nature. The trees are nothing more than oddly cut lumber that does more to provide bike messengers a place to park than to positively add to the ambience of this place. Even the concrete, which is already dead, is made to feel even more dead. The way the sidewalk is cracked and crumbling prevents people from taking a walk without having to worry about tripping on it.

The people who work with me are somewhat better than the surrounding here. Well, most of them are. The security guy is a big teddy bear with a effervescent smile that greets anyone he encounters, whether or not he gets a smile in return. My boss, while still infected with the evil that comes with being a part of the corporate world, is a pleasant man to be around. He's more pleasant if he's holding a snifter of brandy. There is one guy who's mood seems to match the ambience here. He's the bright star, the young player, the one who this company's future is built upon. It's too bad that he carries negativity with him, like the Earth of the back of Atlas. It's also too bad that his negativity infects me nearly everyday. It always seems to happen when we ride the elevator together. I try to say something to the guy like,

"Isn't it a beautiful day?"

He always seems to reply with a grumble as he drinks his brown bubbly beverage.

"Doesn't everything seem so alive and new?"

Again, grumble into beverage.

"How can you not be enlightened by surroundings like this?"

It's usually at this point that the guy's response rises above a grumble.

"I know you have a generally optimistic outlook toward life, but I can't stand crap like that."

Ouch. That response, or ones like that, usually make me feel down for a second or two. This response, however, was different. You see, the guy I was talking to usually says shit. This time he said crap. This response showed progress in the outlook of my company's bright star. This is a good day.







GIVE ME BACK MY NETWORK!!!

Recently, speculation has been rampant as so how Sony will address the PlayStation Network outages at the upcoming Electronic Entertainment Expo. However, recently some credible information has come forth. In a conversation in a internet relay chat room, a user identified as J4y50|\|13731r has posted online the full text of a planned speech to be delivered by Sony's Executive Deputy President Kaz Hirai. Here is the speech:

The whole world now knows my network, PSN, was hacked for no discernible reason in April. This is a recent photograph of my network. PSN, if you're watching, we love you. And the large amount of American money sitting in front of me, well this is what waits for the man that took him. This is your ransom. Two million dollars in unmarked bills, just like all you stupid hackers want.

But this is as close as you hackers ever get to it. You'll never see one dollar of this money, because no ransom will ever be paid for my network. Not one dime. Not one penny.

Instead, I'm offering this money as a reward on your head. Dead or alive, it doesn't matter. So, congratulations hackers. You've just become a two million dollar lottery ticket, except the odds are much, much better. Do you know anyone that wouldn't turn you in for two million dollars? I don't think you do. I doubt it. So, wherever you go and whatever you do, this money will be tracking you down for all time.

And to insure that it does, to keep interest alive, I'm running a full-page add in every major newspaper, television show, magazine, blog, internet forum, and IRC channel, every Sunday for as long as it takes. But -- and this is your last chance -- you return my network, alive, uninjured, I'll withdraw the bounty. With any luck, you can simply disappear. Understand? You will never see this money. Not one dollar.

So, you hackers still have a chance to do the right thing. If you don't, well, then, God be with you, because nobody else on this earth will be.

No comments: