ACCESS IS HEREBY PROHIBITED TO INTERNET SNS FROM THE MCEN NIPRNET, INCLUDING OVER VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK (VPN) CONNECTIONS. So goes the Marine Corps’ directive banning Facebook, Twitter and all other social networks from military networks. http://ping.fm/IKILD

2008 0804 0330 . . .well. . .that was interesting. . . sorry about not being around lately, but "things happened" (w.c. fields, @ 1934). hope i didn't keep anyone waiting. also hope i didn't hurt anyone's feelings. been busy. somewhat. i haven't been around lately; and, on the offhand chance someone might be interested, i thought a few words of explanation might be in order. . . .really, i'm just thinking 'out loud', so to say, and documenting a few of the things i've experienced in the past year or so. i dunno if anyone'd even care to read this crap. which it is, for the most part. roughly nine, ten months ago i was 'involved' in an online rellationship with someone several hundred miles away from here ('here' being defined as 33.2643280029297 degrees north, 95.91484069824422 degrees west. . .give or take a fraction or two. . .). because of her behavior--actions and statements--i''d decided to go and see for myself what the truth really was. since ah's a po' boy, it took some money, but i tend to decide and then follow through. god knows it wouldn't be the first time. worst part of it was leaving my babies. even while my parents were dying, i'd never been away from them more than 24 hours at one time. not in twenty years. i expected to be gone only a couple days or so; but--pesssimist i am--i put out food and water for about a week. i took my december house payment for traveling funds. then i got a ride to the bus station in Greenville, about 15 miles away. turned out that it wasn't at two of the locations given, and at the third--an address i got from Google (supposedly reputable)--it'd been replaced by a cemetery. figgers. i shoulda stopped then. i finally found the bus station being ran out of a very small gas station, & i hopped on the first one going my way. it should have been a straight-line trip of about 500 miles, as i'd been assured by several people. that would have given me a round trip of about 36-48 hours, allowing for difficulties. but when i got to Texarkana, i asked again, just in case. "oh, no. . .first, you're going to Memphis." it seems that a great many bus stations had been closed down during the Cheney Administration; and, of course, the recession/depression was starting to make itself felt. lots and lots of bus stations had been closed down, and the buses were having to go on numerous detours to take up the slack. it made any and all trips a lot longer. and exxpensive. (yes, i know Bush was 'the president', but for at least the first four years Cheney had his arm stuck up Bush's ass to the elbow. at least. he was the puppet master. i've come to realize that Bush was, in his own way, victimized or manipulated, and i tend to feel a bit sorry for him. (but only a little bit.) anyhoo. . .instead of going through two states, i ennded up going through five. a 12-hour one-way trip took about 36 hours, when it was said and done. lots and lots of beautiful country. after i arrived at my destination, i ascertained the facts of the case. and the matter was settled. so i took a walk across the town, back to the bus station--in a rather large city--at about four in the morning, in what was 15-degree fahrenheit weather. i loved it. (always. i've always loved walking or driving through big cities--in all types of weather & in the middle of the night--when nothing and no one was audible or visible for miles. ain't nothing like that feelin'. ah loves it. . .always have, always will. San Diego or Yuma or Dallas or Amarillo or anywhere else. it was just like being a kid again, exploring hundreds of acres of land, miles away from the nearest town back when i was a kid. (i hadn't felt so free in over thirty years, just me and the emptiuness and the night. may never feel that way again. goddammit.) when i got to the bus station, i found i'd missed my ride. the buses home were running 24 hours apart, so i had to wait. two more days. the bus headed home was can

"Attackers are working hard to take over the computers used to access Facebook and other social-networking sites. The dangerous Koobface worm is among the malware running on the site, and it attempts to turn users and friends into zombie botnets. A security analyst urged Facebook users to run antivirus software and being careful about links." http://ping.fm/cVZn9