__________________________________________________ / / / The Eternity Articles / / / / Act I, Scene ix -- November 1995 / /_________________________________________________/ \ \ \ Who am I?: Sanjay Singh \ \ eternity@cyberspace.org \ \_________________________________________________\ "All my life I've wanted to fly Like the birds that you see way up in the sky Making circles in the morning sun Flying high in the sky 'till the day is done." [Big Pig] Contents ======== - Introduction - A New Day... - Price Ain't Everything - Just What I Needed - Citizen Of The World - Stranger Than Fiction [with Julian Barton] - A Higher State of Existence [by Greg Webster] - My Country [by Paul Sheen] - Random Thoughts [by Paul Sheen] - First Thoughts [by Michael Duda] - Mindless Filler... - Disclaimer And so another month goes on. So far a lot of it has been spent sleeping. It seems that living off caffeine for too long will eventually put you very close to a comatose state. So let that be a warning to you. I've danced with the devil, and walked away with a couple of handy tips, useful stuff like 'Thou shalt not drink four cups of coffee on an empty stomach.' So what else has been going on? Not too much. Eternity could be taking its toll on me. The words just don't flow through my fingers to the keyboard anymore. Maybe part of the problem is that I refuse to talk about O.J. It's an easy target, and I'm sure I could squeeze at least two or three pages out of it, but come on. Do we need to hear anymore? Or maybe, I'm just blocked. It hasn't happened yet, but since I'm fairly new to this game, I might just not know what to look for. It turned out that I was just blocked for the three weeks. This entire issue was put together in about a week. That might explain why it seems a bit choppy at times, but stick with it. I'll tell you right now that it is, by far, the issue that I am most proud to have my name at the top of. So without further delay, hand over your tickets, and climb aboard. The train's leaving the station, and you don't want to miss it... Woo Woo. A New Day ========= "This is the beginning of the journey. Hopefully, through this thing, we will be able to accomplish something. I'm not promising any great questions will be answered, but at least they'll be exposed. If we're really lucky we might even find out what our destination is." [The Eternity Articles, Act I, Scene i] You now hold in your hands, and on your screens, the last issue of The Eternity Articles. In the very beginning I promised a journey. And I think that's what I've delivered. I've made the journey, and I know that a few of you have managed to grow with me as we walked together. I'm not actually going to stop writing, don't worry about that. I'll actually be here next month, with a new journal called "Beyond Eternity." I just wanted to change the rules a little, and the name. "The Eternity Articles" was beginning to rub me the wrong way. The only really major changes should be in the name and the underlying message, but I can't even promise you that. A good chunk of you have noticed that I'm not the same person that started this, and I'm not sure how much farther these changes will take me, but to offer a guarantee that nothing will change would be a lie. Think of it as a clean start. When we started on this path together, I had no idea what to expect. If last February you told me that Eternity would have been the catalyst that rekindled my passion for life, I wouldn't have believed you. Hell, the purpose of Eternity seemed like it was to prove that you can't always win, and that some fights weren't worth fighting. Maybe they weren't, but I backed down from the wrong ones. Experience and wisdom are two strange companions, but I couldn't go on without their friendship. Last week I turned twenty-one, and last month I realized what it would mean. It's not a measure of how many years I've used up getting to where I am today, but how many I have left. At the rate that I'm growing now, I know that the possibilities for the future extend... well, beyond eternity... (I couldn't resist) You're all invited to walk beside me on this path, but I know that some of you will be apprehensive. Originally, I was going to use the current mailing list... No more. There's a price to go beyond this point. You have to take the first step. If you want to come along, just reply to this message and let me know. It doesn't need to be anything special, it could just be a simple "yes" or "I'm in." Just try to make it a little more meaningful than "subscribe eternity@cyberspace.org." Eternity is waiting. Price Ain't Everything ====================== "The cost of a thing is the amount of what I call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run." [Henry David Thoreau] The age old dilemma of service seems to be at hand again. I have a friend, who when forced to wait in line for extremely lengthy periods of time in the convenience store of our our first year residence, would proudly start to eat their licorice. His philosophy was simple, "I don't like to wait in line, and they should have it set up so I won't have to." Which is true. I wouldn't go as far as him to make that point, but I see where he was coming from. Ever heard the saying "the meek shall inherit the earth"? It's a lie. The meek won't be able to inherit anything, because they'll be buried under all of the crap that they willingly put up with every day. In the student village, they had us all headlocked. We were forced to buy into prepaid meal plans, and so it was either shop with them, or spend your own cash. They also tossed in a nice little clause about any money left over at the end of the year was their's, but that's another story for another time. Last month, about a week before the last issue went out, I took my computer into a local computer store to get it fixed. So, naturally, I went into the one just off campus that I pass on the way home to find out how much it would cost me. The estimate that I got was for about a hundred dollars, which seemed reasonable, so I got a friend to drive me down with my computer, and I left it there. They said that it should only take three days to fix. (This was a Thursday, incidentally.) I went home for the weekend, and on the following Tuesday I called them. Now remember, this would be four full working days later, and the service guy said that he hadn't had a chance to look inside it yet, but he would that night, and since he was pretty sure that it was a standard part, he wouldn't have a problem putting it in. He assured me that it would be ready on Wednesday. I got a little concerned at this point. After all, I had an issue to put out, and the month was going to end on Saturday. Things looked bleak. On Wednesday, I was caught up in an assignment, or something. The point is that I didn't get a chance to give them a call, but I stopped by on Thursday. I figured that certainly with the extra day... Foolishly, I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I stepped in, and had to wait... and wait... and wait. And eventually, the service guy came out from behind his little wall. He apologized and said that "two new cases" came in on Tuesday night and he hadn't had a chance to look at it yet. Fine. No big deal. It's not like I should expect them to stick to their estimate. So I picked it my computer up, and walked out of the store. Now, it's almost a month later, and I finally get around to calling a dozen or so computer stores around the campus. I found a place that for an extra ten dollars, would get it back to me within the same day. They actually promised that. So the lesson is, don't worry about monopolies, and being forced to deal with someone you don't want to. Just back away, and then find an alternative. I didn't think that there would be one, but I still found it. Just What I Needed ================== "I think the lights go out every time I close my eyes, and then come back on again when I open them. So if you see the lights start to flicker, you'll know I'm out of my blink set." [2nu] Last week was just a little more than just a little strange. I could say that if I had a week like last week a year ago, I would have slipped back into a very depressed state, and would have spent weeks wallowing around down there. But, this is a new year, and a new and improved Sanjay. I have 5000% better cleaning power now, so dirt just knows to stay away... Or does it? I'm winning the race again. I'm in the lead, and I'm in control of my life now. Now the only things I need to beat are the fates and myself. The latter isn't really a concern, since I know my own arsenal, so I'll know when to duck. It just seems that fate has other plans for me. All this week, I've felt that there were a hundred hands pulling on the back of my shirt. Trying to drag me back into the pit that I had just emerged from. But every once in a while they'd let go, or at least the pulling had stopped. But when it was there, it was pretty disturbing. I won't lie and say that ever since I took control of my life back, that it's been all rosy, but it has been better. Ever since I started writing, the depression has gone. The anger and frustration are still there, but one of my greatest enemies has fallen away. The beatings that I endured took their toll, but I think I'm back to being myself again, and a couple of the doubts and second thoughts that I had were merely frustration's way of wooing me back. It's incredible how easy it is to be tempted by promises of your own pain and torture... But that's another story... Citizen Of The World ==================== "An alternate reality might be fun to visit sometime, but I wouldn't want a summer home there or anything." [Mark "MEB" Baldock] I have a friend that I used to talk to a lot. Not about anything, but we'd talk. Every once in a while (almost daily) I'd run off on one of my tangents and I would end up turning the simplicity of 1 + 1 = 2 into quantum mechanics. My imagination has a wonderful habit of doing things like that. Once a conversation gets boring, I just change gears, and go somewhere else. He has this deliciously predictable way of handling the situation. He always asks "what colour is the sky in your world?" And, always obliging, I answer back "pink." Maybe at one time, we could get somewhere with that, but we've been playing the same game for about seven years, so it's just become routine. A lot like tic-tac-toe actually. Habits are hard to break, and they just get so comfortable that you don't want to. Of course, sometimes you realize that if you throw out the old ones, you'll get some new ones that are even cozier. I never really felt at home in the world before. I was a second class citizen in a third-rate society, and we were all doomed anyways, so what did it matter? Nothing ever really seemed to click for me. There was always an eerie feeling of discomfort, a nauseating feeling that I didn't belong, and there was always a paralysing fear that something back was going to happen lurking in the back of my mind. And of course, if you look for something in everything around you, you will find it. You might need to create it, but it will soon be there. And that's when the chain snapped, and my life fell apart. I always thought that the road to success was paved not with the bodies of the people that I'd need to break to get there, but by pieces of myself that I'd need to sell to be able to properly integrate into the rest of the world. Want to know what I really learned? The road to hell isn't paved with good intentions, it's paved with the people who were too blind to see that they didn't need to even walk along the road. I guess I'm just one of the few that was lucky enough to notice that I didn't need to follow that road. That journey would have consumed me before I even got to see where my destination lay. I'm glad that I noticed that it wasn't worth it. Did I find a new path to success? No. I don't even know if there's a path anymore. It just implies too much linearity. I found something much better, I found a different goal. Happiness. Strange, huh? If I ever speak to him again, I'll have to tell him that they sky is blue. I'm home. Stranger Than Fiction ===================== "A bizarre sensation pervades a relationship of pretence. No truth seems true. A simple morning's greeting and response appear loaded with innuendo and fraught with implications... Each nicety becomes more sterile and each withdrawal more permanent." [Maya Angelou] written with: Julian Barton I was doing the dishes last night when I was hit by a thought. Truth. Here I was, running around in a desperate attempt to actually have something written for this issue, and there was a topic just lying in wait for me. So, now that we have a topic, why not try to explain it. For as long as I can remember, people have told me that they value the truth. That the truth was our friend. That if we hold onto it tight enough, we could do no wrong. Well, somewhere along the line, the truth broke down and sold away our secrets... or did it? What if there are two truths running around out there? Maybe we have the real truth and the theoretical one? Wait a second, that might actually make some sense. We all know that theory is very different from reality. I could tell you that "theoretically, I'm immortal," because no one has proven to me that I am not. Of course, we all know what happens when reality shows up... needless to say, a bullet in the brain beats my version of immortality every time. Theoretically, it wouldn't, but I think we're smart enough to know better. So we know what the real truth is. It's an absolute. It's a big slab of concrete right in the middle of our path. It gets in the way, it obstructs our vision. We can't see past it, through it, or around it. Who wants that? Who needs that? We don't want walls, we want freedom. We don't want logic, we want abstraction. We don't want objectivity, we want subjectivity. Why buy the cow when you can get the milk for free? Why tell the absolute truth when dancing around it is so much easier? We want the theoretical truth... It's more or less the same thing, isn't it? It's like Diet-Truth, half the reality, half the guilt. A softer, warmer, fuzzier version of the actual events in our lives. We can forget that the theoretical truth is simply the real truth, with the premises altered and manipulated to create the appearance that we want to end up with. It's a twisted version of logic -- "Decide upon the conclusion, and build premises to support it." Challenging it is hard -- this is an idea which offers us exactly what we want -- a way to 'moderate' reality into something nice, light and safe. So we keep our 'two truths' idea -- much like the 'P.R. self' that we all hide behind. You know what I mean -- the version of ourselves that we like to believe is the real one -- the one that we show other people, the one with the noble motives for everything... the heroic self that we all like to think that we are. We keep the parts that bolster the soft, fuzzy feeling, and discard the rest. Maybe there is nothing wrong with dreaming of ourselves as heroic. "It's good to have that vision," you might think. Problem is that we tend to lose sight of the real 'us' underneath it. The 'us' who was too tired to give up out seat on the train for that old lady last week. We lose sight of the real person, the only 'us' that we want to see is the other one, and maybe for a while that's all we do see. Then, when we meet someone else, we show them the idealized us, and they confirm the lie. It spreads on from there, like a drop of water in a still pool. The little white lies, the excuses -- they all lead slowly, in small steps maybe, but inexorably towards that safety of the 'theoretical truth'. The 'theoretical truth' is a lovely concept. We can use it to avoid responsibility for our weaknesses, for our mistakes, for our laziness. We can use it to dodge the consequences of our actions. A truly marvellous thing, the 'theoretical truth'. There is only one problem, it doesn't work. The story that we were taught from childhood is, for once, true. Truth does eventually catch up with you, we can't dodge reality forever. Sometimes it's the excuses that don't change the consequences, the white lies which are discovered. Usually it is worse, we get that nagging feeling inside. You know the one, you've felt it before. It comes when your mind is quiet, when there is nothing to distract you. It's a hard one to put into words, but it has that dull, hollow feeling that you aren't quite who you should be. The person who read the grade sheet, and saw the mark which was 15% less than it should have been. The person who reflects on a game, and knows inside that they could have put a little more in for the team. The person who looks back at their life so far, and realises that they are not quite the noble hero that they like to believe they are -- these people are us, these people know part of that feeling. They have the start of it. The person who looks at the world, who sees the web of lies that we choose to call truth rather than challenge the whole world, and is tired and nauseated by it -- that person knows the rest of it. Of course, we don't let ourselves stay in that for long. There is a simple way out of it -- turn on the tv, reach for a beer. Distract ourselves, it'll go away. We spend most of our life hiding from the same truth that we think we honour. Although it all starts out as little things, other bits pile up, and we all end up at the same stage, unless we put in a tremendous effort of will to avoid it. Responsibility is heavy, and we all like freedom. The end result is the same for everyone though... A Higher State Of Existence =========================== "He who knows others is wise; he who knows himself is enlightened." [Lao-Tzu] [Greg Webster is someone I have never met, actually I've only been talking to him for about a month and a half, but he seems like an interesting person. Like me, every month, he examines his life, and shares bits and pieces of it with us. His creation, The Eidolonica Papers, is similar to Eternity, in a sense. I think that the key difference is that Greg doesn't limit himself to his present life, while I would rather stay in the present than to return to the past. But, I'll let him explain the idea to you. You can send mail to him for more information.] by: Greg Webster I'm just this guy, you know? Just like everyone else, though it took me one hell of a long time to realize it. I figured I was just strange, one time had some weird thoughts that I wasn't actually from this planet. (Am I sure about this now? No.) In the past couple years I've went on a journey of self- discovery that was completely unintentional, as all the best are. I hitchhiked across the continent simply because I was bored, I fell in love and got hurt, I got over it as best I could in a far away place, came back to Vancouver, Canada, fell in love again (this time with a woman and her child), got hurt again. All these experiences smacked me in the head hard enough to tell me to look at who I am. It was at this point that I finally decided enough was enough and that maybe it was time to get my life started in a straighter path. Right now, I'm deciding all sorts of things in my life, finding a focus that I've never had, and working towards the hope that everything is going to work out alright. I'm looking past the mistakes I made in the past, and getting to the point where I can really be good to myself and others. The Eidolonica Papers is my expression of relaxment, doing something I really always enjoyed... asking questions of things in the world no one has ever managed to explain. Who knows, maybe I'll learn something? :) (actually, I think that's a guarantee) The Eidolonica Papers are being put together as sort of an experience-relation exercise. I'm picking a topic that hasn't been fully understood by science or the common-sense, and asking others in my world to relate some of their experiences on that topic. Not every issue will have the sort of self-delving I have shown here, some will have none, some issues will have a lot. I believe that with the way this world works, I'll never run out of topics. My Country ========== "It is a well-known fact that we always recognize our homeland when we are about to lose it." [Albert Camus] by: Paul Sheen A certain referendum in Quebec (one of the ten provinces of Canada, for the geographically-impaired) leaves the future of Canada as a whole to be decided by less than a third of the population. Doesn't sound like democracy to me, but that's not what I'm here to talk about, really. Quebec politicians have forever whined about wanting to be declared a distinct society. If you cross the border where I live (in Ottawa) to Hull, you immediately know this is true. It's far deeper than just the language, it's a life-style. For example, French-Canadians are a proud and emotional bunch, while the rest of Canada is very drab and for the most part apathetic. French-Canadians are also terrible drivers, but we won't hold that against them. What I am trying to say is that Quebec has no need to feel insecure about their distinctness, and nobody is trying to take that away from them. Why is it that Quebeckers are so sensitive everytime somebody says something about them? Is the media being that manipulated? This whole pride thing makes the French want to be their own sovereign country, and have all the freedom and power that comes with that, but at the same time they want to keep the Canadian dollar, citizenship and everything that is good about Canada. But this time it really is a case of "you can't have your cake and eat it too." What happens when the Indians (no not the Cleveland Indians) decide they have a claim to the land too? Then we have a lovely little civil war on our hands, but this time the RCMP isn't going to be there to protect the rights of golfers. Isn't it ironic that we find out the future of our nation on Halloween? Seems like good enough a day as any. I also question the "good" intentions of the leaders of the separatist party. Yes, Jacques Parizeau, who has the dictator smile down-pat and Lucien Bouchard who is the real brain behind this whole thing. It's strangely ironic that this man suffered a battle with the "flesh-eating bacteria" and lost a limb when this is a nice metaphor for what he is doing to Canada. Quebec is a part of Canada that cannot just be broken off without a great sense of loss. I mean, what will happen when Mario Lemieux and Wayne Gretzky have to play against one another in the Olympics? Another question to be asked... There is not an overwhelming majority of Quebecois that want to separate. It is almost 50/50. What happens to that half that don't want to leave Canada? Do they become stuck in a place they are unhappy or do they have to uproot their entire families and traditions to stay a part of Canada? This brings to mind what I actually wanted to talk about... What happens if there is a no vote? Parizeau has said time and time again that if they vote no (incidentally, if they vote no to separate) he will just keep calling more referendums until there is a yes vote. Sounds to me like we should make them leave just to spare *us* the angst of watching them decide what's going to happen. But that's not what I want. This reminds me of a certain situation in Seattle, Washington. The baseball team, the Mariners, had their most successful season ever this year and at the same time, the owners were threatening to leave Seattle if they didn't get a new stadium. So they had what was, for all intents and purposes a referendum to decide if the taxpayers wanted to pay for the stadium. The taxpayers said no in a very close vote. But now I'm reading how the town council has voted to build a $300 million stadium anyway. Perhaps I missed some details, but isn't that ignoring the democratic process? (Not that I'm promoting the democratic process either, but that seems to be the dogma of choice in North America.) So will it be the same in Quebec? Will there be a 40-60 split or something to that effect where 60 percent of people vote no, but then the premier (head of the province) decides that all that was really needed was 40%? Who knows. I guess we will in a few days. Random Thoughts =============== "I have this little theory..." [Paul Sheen] by: Paul Sheen Men: Ever wonder why bathrooms are designed with odd numbers of urinals? I have this little theory that it's because men prefer the outer urinals and at the same time, do not want to be beside anyone. So, for example, with the 3 urinal bathroom we have here at work, you can have two people there, each with an end urinal and not beside each other. If you had two urinals, you'd both have end urinals but then you'd be standing beside someone. If you had four, you'd have two on the end, and then two empty urinals in the middle because people don't want to be beside each other. I find that at least in my case, and probably in most other cases, people prefer that personal space. Perhaps it's different in other cultures, but here, people like to urinate as anonymously as possible. That's why you never turn your head when you're standing there... Just sort of stare blankly at the wall. And think about it... If you were smart, you would you use that middle urinal, because it's never been touched... Probably crystal clean. The reason I'm actually writing this today is because I was shocked when somebody came in to the washroom while I was at one of the end urinals and took the middle one. I can't believe he had the nerve to violate the urinal buffer! Especially when an end was free. Go figure. I think it's just good etiquette to take that end stall when it's available. Maybe I'm just a freak... First Thoughts ============== "Intuition and concepts constitute... the elements of all our knowledge, so that neither concepts without an intuition in some way corresponding to them, nor intuition without concepts, can yield knowledge." [Immanuel Kant] by: Michael Duda I used to have something wrong with me. Not that this was the only thing wrong with me but it was just one of them. It was not a big problem, but not a small one either. I don't know how it started but it was with me for a very long time and it was only recently that I think I got rid of it. What was this problem? Was it alcoholism? Addiction to cigarettes? Not even close to those. I used to judge people on the what I thought of them the first time I met them. I think everyone does it at times and I now know that it is unfair to do it. I would meet someone and I would jump to a conclusion about this person. I would suddenly have an opinion on them and a complete diagnosis of who they were. I was being a jerk. I was an ass-hole. That person might have a different opinion then mine on one subject and I would immediately not like that person. How did I change? Well, I don't know how it happened really... in fact, I don't even have a clue. But it did happen. Sometime over the past year I started giving people a chance. I started giving people more then one opportunity to prove themselves to me. I think this really became evident recently when I realized I may have never gotten to know my best girl friend (not girlfriend type thing, but good friend who happens to be a girl) if I didn't give myself a chance to get to know her. Thank God I did give her a chance. It started in september of last year. I moved into residence here at the University of Guelph and started hanging around with a few people on my floor. One of these guys only hung around us for a little bit for the first couple of months. It seemed like everytime the rest of our gang were going out somewhere and we asked him, he had to stay around because he had to wait for a phone call from someone named Vicky. There were a few nights we were going out and we would ask him if he wanted to go and he would say something like "sorry... i gotta talk to Vicky." After a few times that this had happened I finally asked one of my co-gang members who this Vicky was. They told me that this was this guy's ex-girlfriend and that they had just broken up just before school started and she was being a real "bitch" and wouldn't let things end. So what did I do? I started believing that she is a bitch. I even started to refer to her as "the bitch" when her ex-boyfriend wasn't around. That went on for a few months and by December things between those two had calmed down and this guy hung around us a lot more. At the end of December exams, everyone on our floor went out and got extremely drunk at a local bar. We had a pretty good time and I was introduced to Vicky. The first thing she said to me was "When you get married, are you going to make your wife take your last name?" This can be explained by looking at my last name, apparently she had a problem with it. I asked her what she meant and she told me that she thought my last name was weird and anyone having to take it would be made fun of. Well, I knew then that she must be a bitch. How dare she say that! I wasn't in the mood for an argument, so I let the conversation end there. Time passed and my opinion did not change of her. A few more things happened and I met her a few more times my opinion changed very little. The only common factor to all of our meetings was that she was drunk each time. This might be meaningless but I think it was a big factor. One night at the end of february the gang I hung around with went to a bar and got drunk (again) and there was Vicky. By the time last call came, myself, Vicky and Vicky's ex-boyfriend were the only people in the gang left there. When we were leaving, Vicky told us since it was a long walk home (25 minutes, but when your drunk 25 minutes can be a long walk, especially when you don't know your way home well) we could sleep at her apartment. I at first said no but agreed after minute or two. I slept on her living room floor and her ex-boyfriend slept in her roomate's bed. The next morning I woke up and found Vicky was up already sitting in the living room. I thought to myself, "Great, now i got to talk to the bitch until Greg gets up." Well, I talked to her for a while and I was in for a deep surprise. She turned out to be a nice person. Actually, she was a really nice person. We talked for a few hours and after that my opinion of her was different. I still thought she was a bitch, but a bitch who was nice. Well, I ended up sleeping on her floor a few times in March. And each time I slept over we would talk the next morning for a while and I learned more and more things about her. I asked her about her roommate and as it turned out, she and her roommate had not gotten along since September. I also found out that her mom had died in August right after Greg and she had broken up. Suddenly things made sense to me. All those phone calls she made to Greg made sense. Her mom dying, she and Greg breaking up as well as a bad roommate would put anyone in a foul mood. As for that last name thing, I think she was just drunk at the time and being silly. When school was over at the end of April, we were just decent friends at that point and I knew a few things about her. We wrote to each other over the summer but did not have a chance to talk (she went to England and then a trip around Europe in July and August, so contact was non-existent) until September. Things picked up right where they left off in the first week of September, and have accelerated at an incredible pace. My roommate and I started hanging out with her and her new roommate and we even went out drinking with each other. Each weekend when we are going out, we call each other and see what the other is doing. Every couple of nights one of us will phone each other and we will talk for a while and see how each other is doing. I live on campus and once in a while she will stop by between classes and we'll talk about things. Neither of us have any intention of taking our relationship beyond friends but that is just fine. Who can't use another really good friend? (If you ever think you already have enough good friends then I think you need to take a look at yourself.) If I ever did make a move on her, I wouldn't be able to forgive myself for putting our friendship at risk. She even told me one day that I was one of the few people she truly cared about. We have had a couple of arguments, normally over stupid things but all it takes is either of us to say that we are sorry, and the fighting stops there. She and her ex-boyfriend and now the best of friends and I think any anger between the two that developed when they broke up is finally gone. Both of them at different times have told me that I was the one who made them really good friends again. I don't think I caused that, I believe that really good friends are friends forever. What's the moral of this entire story? Don't ever think you know a person by the first time you meet them, not even the second time, not even the third time. Give everyone you meet a chance. Its hard to do and it can't always be done, but at least try not to jump to conclusions. I think if we all did this with everyone we meet, the world would be a better place and more people would get along with each other. I have heard the saying "Don't judge a book by its cover," many times. Now I finally know what it means. Mindless Filler... ================== "Knowledge is of two kinds. We know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it." [Samuel Johnson] Well if you have this then you probably know how you got it, but in case this was passed on to you, then I'll just let you know where you can find it. mail: eternity@cyberspace.org web: http://www.interlog.com/~vash ftp: ftp.etext.org: /pub/Zines/WhyMe/ gopher: gopher.etext.org (follow the prompts) newsgroups: alt.zines (happy hunting) subscriptions: Just send me mail, I'll add you to the list. All I ask is that you let me know what you think about this 'zine, and you can even mention how you found out about it. That's not asking too much is it? You can also ask for back issues, if you want to find out what Eternity was like before you got there... As always, if you have a question, comment, statement, rant, or anything, feel free to let me know. (Who knows, you might even feel better that you did it.) There's always room for me to improve, and there's always room for an extra page of whatever you have to offer. Disclaimer ========== I take full responsibility of the overall content here. There might be other contributors (and what they say is their own intellectual property which I won't hold any claim to), but what goes into this is my choice. Truth is subjective (if you believe something then to you it is fact, and if you don't then it is fiction, simple enough?) so I won't make any claims about honesty... believe what you want. If you're going to use something from here just make sure that you cite whoever wrote the article. If it doesn't say who wrote it, then it's probably me. I'd also like to be told that you're doing it, if for nothing else, than to satisfy my ego. Sanjay Singh (10/26/95)