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A Proud Member of the Reality-Based Community
About Me :
I'm a grownup nerd living in the Boston burbs. I write computer programs for a living and plays for fun.
I'm married to a wonderful woman, and we share a nice little house with our daughter and our cats.
I'm a humanist, a technologist, an artist, and an idealist. I believe in reason, freedom, love, equality,
and democracy. (Did I mention that I'm
an idealist? I did, OK.)
I'm also a pragmatist and an empiricist. I reject ideology and dogma, especially when they conflict with
practical facts (i.e., pretty much always). I particularly hate willful ignorance, which tends to go hand-in-hand
with ideology and dogma.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Like the alignment of the planets, this blog gets updated as I have the time, inspiration, and inclination to do so.
Sunday, July 27, 2003
A Happy Customer is Our Best Advertisement
I got this email a couple of days ago, from a man who played a role in a full production of my play First Person Shooter:
Wow. All I can say is wow. I did write the play with guys like John in mind, and it pleases me immensely to imagine that it made a difference for someone. Of course it pisses me off more than I can ever convey that our institutions, e.g. high school, are so mind-bogglingly dumb and irrational, and given the choice, I'd rather live in a world where such institutions work and don't invite satire.
Unlike John, I didn't get kicked out of high school, but I had a very poor high school experience. Who knows, though? Maybe if I had been in high school at the time of Columbine, I just might have gotten kicked out. Not because I am or ever was likely to go on a shooting spree; but because the teachers and administrators in my school were stupid and incompetent.
To this day I am baffled by some of the things the teachers and administrators in my high school did and said. (This was Penney High School, now known as East Hartford High School) I'm not going to generalize here, but the majority of my teachers and every single administrator I encountered in the East Hartford school system was arrogant, ignorant, and completely uncaring. Dick Taser and Miss Millstone were drawn directly out of high school teachers I have known. I didn't have to make up a lot.
I got this email a couple of days ago, from a man who played a role in a full production of my play First Person Shooter:
Hi. I played the lawyer in FPS two years ago... I just wanted to say that I loved the play, having been kicked out of highschool my junior year less than a month after the columbine shootings. I was a habitual trench coat wearer who hung out with my antisocial friends and made fun of all the jocks. Performing your work was cathartic, because I think the satirical tone you took with it showed the audience just how insane all the paranoia that started after columbine really is. It's a powerfull message wrapped up in dark sarcasm. Thank you very much for putting this out there...
P.S: Thought you could appreciate the humor of my signature, which follows.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Trench Coat - $100
Military Combat Boots - $75
AK-47 - $500
The Look on Their Faces - Priceless
For Everything Else, There's Mastercard
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Wow. All I can say is wow. I did write the play with guys like John in mind, and it pleases me immensely to imagine that it made a difference for someone. Of course it pisses me off more than I can ever convey that our institutions, e.g. high school, are so mind-bogglingly dumb and irrational, and given the choice, I'd rather live in a world where such institutions work and don't invite satire.
Unlike John, I didn't get kicked out of high school, but I had a very poor high school experience. Who knows, though? Maybe if I had been in high school at the time of Columbine, I just might have gotten kicked out. Not because I am or ever was likely to go on a shooting spree; but because the teachers and administrators in my school were stupid and incompetent.
To this day I am baffled by some of the things the teachers and administrators in my high school did and said. (This was Penney High School, now known as East Hartford High School) I'm not going to generalize here, but the majority of my teachers and every single administrator I encountered in the East Hartford school system was arrogant, ignorant, and completely uncaring. Dick Taser and Miss Millstone were drawn directly out of high school teachers I have known. I didn't have to make up a lot.