This is part of an email that my Uncle Dave sent me last week.

"Yesterday I had the privilege of working with the Red Cross at ground zero. Since then, I've thought a lot about how I could convey to others all the feelings I had throughout the day. The short answer is, I can't. But there are some things I can share. Looking at the downtown area covered in ash and soot, the buildings with boarded up windows, the unbelievably huge smoking pile of rubble, talking to the Police, Firemen, construction workers, men and women who've worked 12 hour shifts for weeks without a day off, all I can say is, I didn't cry. It wasn't easy not to, but I didn't cry. During my shift, about 5 workers were taken away in ambulances, 1 came in for stitches, 1 for foreign matter in his eye. This was just during my 8 hours there! If you think these men and women aren't among the bravest Americans or that they aren't risking their lives every day, you are wrong. High Points : Meeting Karen G., a fellow PC rider from Alaska, who has volunteered to work here, and giving her a hug. Meeting a Boston Police Officer who gave me a patch that says "Boston Police Motorcycle Drill Team". We hadn't talked bikes, how did she know ? Meeting the volunteers from Mississippi, South & North Carolina, California and who knows where else, people who have been away from home for weeks just to pitch in and help. Highest Points : Shaking the hands of these brave men and women and saying "Thanks for everything you are doing" and hearing them respond, "THANK YOU!, we couldn't do what we do without the Red Cross and people like you". I felt so humble, so unworthy and so ashamed that I've done so little while they risk their lives for us and then, they thank me, It was an honor to be in the presence of these men and women. If you live anywhere even remotely close to NYC, do yourself the biggest favor of your life, call the Red Cross and volunteer for a shift. I guarantee that you will end your shift a much different person than when you started it. You will better understand what this country has gone through and, after meeting these men and women, know there is nothing that can ever destroy a country that produces men and women like them. God Bless America -"

Passed on to me by a friend at work, here are some holiday-appropriate events going on nationwide:

ScreamSeekers This is a directory of costumes, haunted attractions & haunted houses, horror magazines and Web sites.

Crypt Crawl More of the same spooky stuff from Crypt Crawl. Over 100 haunted houses, 200 horror fiction sites and 100 supernatural sites are listed.

HauntedHouse.com Billed as the ultimate online haunt directory, HauntedHouse.com offers polls, stories, forums and links for those looking to be spooked.

We have heard about the thousands of lives that were lost on September 11 and in addition to those inconceivable losses, there are other things that were irreplaceable lost that day. The Broadway Archive is a foundation which has labored for years to assemble a comprehensive collection of Broadway plays adapted for television. In addition, they had accumulated tens of thousands of photos and documents related to theater history. Unfortunately, most of those archives were housed at 30 West Broadway, just one block from 7 World Trade Center which crumbled on September 11th. No one has been able to get near the collection to assess the damage, but it is sumised to be completely destroyed. Thirty years of theater history have been obliterated. Here's a very appropriate Cole Porter classic to remember the loss: The more I travel, across the gravel, the more I sail the sea. The more I feel convinced of the fact, New York's the town for me. Take me back to Manhattan, take me back to New York. I miss the east side, the west side, the north side, and the south side. So take me back to Manhattan... that dear old dirty town!

Apparently, the US has been broadcasting messages to the Taliban, instructing them on how to surrender to US troops. The following is a translation from that broadcast, and I am sure that it loses something, but it is still interesting to hear the message that we are sending to the enemy. "Attention Taliban! You are condemned. Did you know that? The instant the terrorists you support took over our planes, you sentenced yourselves to death. The Armed Forces of the United States are here to seek justice for our dead. Highly trained soldiers are coming to shut down once and for all Osama bin Laden's ring of terrorism, and the Taliban that supports them and their actions. "Our forces are armed with state of the art military equipment. What are you using, obsolete and ineffective weaponry? Our helicopters will rain fire down upon your camps before you detect them on your radar. Our bombs are so accurate we can drop them right through your windows. Our infantry is trained for any climate and terrain on earth. United States soldiers fire with superior marksmanship and are armed with superior weapons. "You have only one choice ... Surrender now and we will give you a second chance. We will let you live. If you surrender no harm will come to you. When you decide to surrender, approach United States forces with your hands in the air. Sling your weapon across your back muzzle towards the ground. Remove your magazine and expel any rounds. Doing this is your only chance of survival." 

So today while taking a break from other things I looked up a few websites with very generic names, just to see what would come up.

Something.com - Even though it is called Something.com, don't expect something. I would have been interested to see Anything when I got there, but that wasn't there either. I did check out anything.com but they had nothing as it turns out. Except some links to pornography. Venture at your own risk.

Everything.com - These guys actually had something, although their claims of having Everything fell significantly short of my expectations. They do have an interesting book series though, not that I would buy it.

Nothing.com - Weird. They have a bunch of links to interesting sites, but you have to be Inspector Cluseau to find them.

Hey.com - This one is probably the most interesting site in this group. They have some ads and commercials here that are kindof funny. Worth about 10 seconds of my life.

What.com - This site actually does have nothing. Well, except this. The domain what.com is for sale and they were told that it is valued at 290-360k. Hah. I would love to see someone pay that for a domain today! Maybe 18 months ago. 

The generalized advice in Generations at Work is not the only crime here, it's the repetitive nature of the generalizations. How many times can I read the same claims that Generation X is cynical or that the Nexters have an affinity for the Veterans? These and other overgeneralized assertions are made in the first four chapters, then repeated ad infinitum to compose the remaining chapters. Authors today seem to think that if they preface their flawed work by telling us they know the work is flawed, that it's somehow okay to publish the imperfect work. Not so. If your work is generalized to the point of being useless, take it to Women's Day or Redbook; don't make us suffer through a novels-worth of drivel. The "real-world" examples of cross-generational conflict ring false and forced. The management guidelines not specific enough and the whole thing a large waste of time. If you're into examining the generation gap, rent Footloose and pass this book by.

there was a band...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: ANTHRAX (the band) Vs. ANTHRAX (the disease) In light of current events, we are changing the name of the band to something more friendly, "Basket Full Of Puppies". Actually, just the fact that we are making jokes about our name sucks. In the twenty years we've been known as "Anthrax", we never thought the day would come that our name would actually mean what it really means. When I learned about anthrax in my senior year biology class, I thought the name sounded "metal". Everyone in my neighborhood had a band with an "er" name, like "Ripper" or "Deceiver" or "Killers" and I wanted to be different. "Anthrax" sounded cool, aggressive, and nobody knew what it was. Until a few years ago most people thought we'd made it up. Even our album, "Spreading The Disease" was just a play on the name. We were spreading our music to the masses. Before the tragedy of September 11th the only thing scary about Anthrax was our bad hair in the 80's and the "Fistful Of Metal" album cover. Most people associated the name Anthrax with the band, not the germ. Now in the wake of those events, our name symbolizes fear, paranoia and death. Suddenly our name is not so cool. To be associated with these things we are against is a strange and stressful situation. To us, and to millions of people, it is just a name. We don't want to change the name of the band, not because it would be a pain in the ass, but because we hope that no further negative events will happen and it won't be necessary. We hope and pray that this problem goes away quietly and we all grow old and fat together. Be safe, Scott, Charlie, Frank and John AKA PS - If an Anthrax member gets Anthrax, call Alanis Morrisette. That would be ironic. Don't you think? 

The Hobbit - In anticipation of the Lord of the Rings movie coming out this Fall, I have started rereading the entire series. I am still trying to figure out why there they have not included The Hobbit in the series, although, I can understand since the Lord of the Rings trilogy is more packaged and ready to go. The Hobbit is one of those books that everyone on the face of the planet really must read to even be considered human. Ok, well I'll let it slide if you haven't, but do yourself a favor and go pick it up. 

It's interesting to read a book published in 1997 and see a sentence like, "Even on my machine (wilth 72mb of RAM!), I had PDF files stop working when viewed on the web..." No kidding, 72mb? Even the most basic computers now ship standard with 64mb; I have 192mb and that is certainly not near the high end of the spectrum. Lynda Weinman, the author of Designing Web Graphics 2 also gushes on about computers with 166mHz processors, million-color monitors and the wonders of a GUI versus command-line. Okay, that last one was a lie, but sometimes I felt trapped in 1985 when reading this graphics tutorial. Everything gets dated so fast online that most of her listed links were broken and some facts are quite inaccurate. On the bright side, at least she doesn't drone on about the New Economy... This book offers a good overview of creating graphics for the Web. It's not nearly as detailed as a Photoshop tutorial, but it does cover topics like transparency, scanning tips, animation and graphic optimization. If you can read it for free—from the library or a generous friend—you'll enjoy it much more than paying the cover price of $55.00. Perhaps Designing Web Graphics.3 is more enjoyable than this outdated version.

One of the niftiest examples of an abstract concept in practice is on Seth Godin's Web site. Go to Permission.com and if you submit your email address, the first four chapters of Permission Marketing will be emailed to you, free. This touches on some interesting privacy issues that I've been reading about recently. Consumers will usually give up some personal data in exchange for a meaningful benefit. In this case, you have to decide if four chapters of Permission Marketing are worth your email address. In addition, you are prevented from entering dummy information because the chapters are sent to the email you provide. Enter a dummy and no one benefits, enter your real email and you receive a portion of the book and Seth Godin gets a confirmed email address. Now the ball is in Seth's court. He pinky swears on Permission.com that he won't sell your email address, but how can you tell if he's trustworthy? You really can't yet, but if he were to distribute that address, and you found out, his credibility would be degraded and you would think twice about offering him information in the future. So even though he would profit in the short-term, it's in his best interests to keep his word.

Flora and Henri Your child may not look like the impeccably-groomed, clear-eyed beauties on the Flora and Henri site, but you can at least get them one of these adorable outfits and daydream of a house without peanut butter on the couch.

Oliebollen Funky clothes and toys for kids. As always, the word 'hip' plastered all over the site means things are generally more expensive than they have a right to be, but just get one item and save it for a special occasion.

Baby Travel Solutions If you can't possibly fit another suitcase on the plane, Baby Travel Solutions will deliver baby formula, juice, baby food, diapers, baby wipes, shampoo, baby soap and snacks to your hotel, cruise ship, resort, or Grandma's house.

Kids-in-Mind This site rates films so parents know what to expect before viewing with kids. Good idea, but it goes a bit far in their definitions of violence in film. They describe the violence in The Princess Diaries, "We see an extreme close-up of a young woman's eyebrows being plucked, and we see a young woman wince when she removes a pore cleansing strip from her nose. A cat hisses at a woman. Two young women spit on the street." Wow, pore strips and eyebrow plucking... practically a massacre.