Thanks For The Thought Wil

[Ed Hansberry]

<a href="http://www.wilwheaton.net/91103.html">http://www.wilwheaton.net/91103.html</a><br /><br /><i>(Flash needed)</i>

[Janak Parekh]

Nice.

Wil has become quite the Flash expert, hasn't he?

Too bad the world doesn't seem to get the message. :cry:

--janak

[ombu]

Too bad the world doesn't seem to get the message. :cry:


Yep, have to quote somebody here but I don't remember who wrote this:

"Intelligence is a constant on earth and population is growing fast."

Hmm, just have to disagree, intelligent / good will people will find the way, this is more than a hope for me, it's a vital belief.

Regards.

[ojlittle]

Glad to see that. Believe it or not I did not hear much about 9/11 today. I hope people haven't forgotten. We don't need another wake up call.

[Janak Parekh]

Hmm, just have to disagree, intelligent / good will people will find the way, this is more than a hope for me, it's a vital belief.
That's where you and I will disagree. The world has warred since its inception, and I have no reason to believe it will change. And I'm not pointing fingers, as I would like to avoid a political debate.

(I consider myself a "realist", but most people think I'm a "pessimist". ;))

Glad to see that. Believe it or not I did not hear much about 9/11 today. I hope people haven't forgotten. We don't need another wake up call.
I think the goal was to deliberately make it low-key, so that people can reflect internally about it and start the healing process. I personally prefer it that way -- having worked in Manhattan for much of my life, having to see imagery from that day is still a bit too overwhelming for me.

--janak

[marlof]

"Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe is that none of it has tried to contact us." Calvin to Hobbes in Weirdos from Another Planet by Bill Watterson (1990). Since then, not much has changed...

[Foo Fighter]

That was very clever. :Fade-color

[yawanag]

Thanks for sending that our way. It seems things in my area were rather low key. That's good if we don't forget to tell our children to treasure the good in all of us. We, as adults, sometimes tire of the hackneyed images and stories of old, but out children need to know why we take such pride in being on American soil. It was bought by the lives of those before them.

[Vincent M Ferrari]

I'm not a big fan of Wil. In fact, I hate his guts. Truth be told, I agree with what he has to say in his little Flash presentation; but with one major difference.

Everyone wants peace. That's undeniable. The difference is in how some of us believe we should arrive there. :wink:

It was a beautiful thing to say... But knowing his political beliefs, I just wanted to clarify things a bit.

[Duncan]

My God that has some style. Well done Wil... and thanks for pointing us at it Ed. While I'm with Janak on the 'realist' front as long as there are people who get 'the point' there is always hope...

[Janak Parekh]

The difference is in how some of us believe we should arrive there. :wink:
True -- and we should avoid that on this thread, as it will get ugly and I will lock it if I have to. (We could visit your blog to argue about it... :lol:)

--janak

[dangerwit]

It's interesting how the universe always seems to balance itself out.

I hope for the nice too. Sadly, to understand "nice", we also have to understand "not nice". What we need is some "really nice".

*Phil

[isilver]

One of our main news sites in Canada has posted a release that the US is on alert right now. You can find the article at http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/World/2003/09/11/183187-ap.html. So it's clear that 09/11 is still a date not only to remember, but to all be aware for any attacks.

I think we are all safe though as the day is already passed.

[Duncan]

Everyone wants peace. That's undeniable. The difference is in how some of us believe we should arrive there.

IF what we get IS peace - then I don't care how we arrive there - as long as our journey doesn't involve the diminishing of what peace we already have... and y'know what? If we ever achieve lasting piece in this world (big IF) the roll call of heroes who helped to achieve it will likely be as full of people who we disagree with as those we agree with 'cos there are people of conviction, drive and a commitment to making a better world on all sides of the political and religious spectrum...

[Ed Hansberry]

I'm not a big fan of Wil. In fact, I hate his guts.Everyone wants peace.
Uhm.... ok. :confused totally:

[Busdriver]

Who in the heck is "Wil"? :?

[Duncan]

Who in the heck is "Wil"? :?

Wil Wheaton - played 'annoying know-all teenager' on Star Trek: TNG (may not have been his character's actual name...!). Now writes quite a well know and often quite fun blog.

[arebelspy]

He's only well known because of Fark.

-arebelspy

[Ed Hansberry]

He's only well known because of Fark.
You don't become the #27 blog just because of Fark (#14).

[dh]

Good to know that anyone can become a Flash expert by animating a couple of pieces of text to move across the screen.

Will for President I say. We need an expert in the White House! (who is he again?)

[Vincent M Ferrari]

I'm not a big fan of Wil. In fact, I hate his guts.Everyone wants peace.
Uhm.... ok. :confused totally:

Just 'cause I can't stand him, doesn't mean I'm going to go over and pop him one ;-)

[Vincent M Ferrari]

The difference is in how some of us believe we should arrive there. :wink:
True -- and we should avoid that on this thread, as it will get ugly and I will lock it if I have to. (We could visit your blog to argue about it... :lol:)

--janak

Everyone's welcome to come over and tell me how much I suck. Heck, I don't even invite people over and they do it anyway :rotfl:

Seriously, like I said, and what I hoped would happen, is that people would think a bit about how different people approach peace and how to get to it.

Also, as I said, the sentiment was a nice one.

That is the last thing I will say about the subject so as not end up in the Hall of Flame and Shame...

[EnsignRam]

Believe it or not I did not hear much about 9/11 today. I hope people haven't forgotten.

I live and have lived in NYC my whole life. Two days after the towers fell the wind shifted and began to blow towards Queens, the area where I live, I'll never foget the smell... Indescribable.

"I hear you, the American people hear you and one day the people who knocked down these buildings will hear from all of us." --President George W. Bush September 2001

[medic119]

I wish I could get the thing to load. I've been trying all day without success. I thought it was just server load, but if all you can see it, It has to be my connection.

Someone repost it somewhere please.

[PetiteFlower]

It's really the same Wil Wheaton from Star Trek? I thought it had to be another guy with the same name.

Lots of people hate him....wasn't there an entire newsgroup dedicated to thinking up ways to kill him? Or was that his character....

Was a nice presentation though. Simple, but nice. I can't share my thoughts on today without pissing too many people off.

[ctmagnus]

What still amazes me is that on that day I woke up shortly after the first tower fell, without knowing anything was happening, and thought "must turn on the news" even though I hardly ever watch morning news. It was then that I realized how far human emotion can stretch.

[Fishie]

Wrote this email last year:
One minute of silence.

A year ago in the afternoon(6 houre timedifference with NY)I saw the events wich we are sadly all too familiar with unfold on live TV right before my eyes.
Smoke billowing from one of the towers and a reporter trying to make sense of it all, mere minutes later a second plane hitting the other tower with pinpoint precision immediatly ending all speculation as to what was happening, later cemented in by a third plane that had hit the capitol.
This was an attack, something I had feared would happen for years yet something I had hoped would never happen.
Sadly it was happening.

The following houres and days for me personaly were horrible and at moments it was verry difficult to go on.
Feelings of fear, anger and saddnes filled my hart.
The next three days I spend mostly on the phone in often failed attempts to contact friends of mine who lived or worked in or around Manhattan and in talking with my manny American friends from around the country.
Two sleeples nights, a 250$ phonebill, two gallon´s of coffee and a splitting headache later I finnaly received email from the last person for who´s life I feared.
Once that happened I finnaly managed a good nights rest but after waking up again reality hit me and I was confronted both online and ofline with a barrage of hatred and misinformation.

These went from claims I was a terrorist supporter to even death threats aimed towards me in moments of anger.
I didnt mind too much, these persons just like me were personnaly suffering from the events and theyre way of dealing with it at that moment was to vent and look for scapegoats, I dealt with the events the only way I have known how.
Defending my vieuws and trying to make others see that the calls for revenge and blaming me or others like me was in fact the same sort of reasoning those puppets manipulated by a crminal mastermind used to justify theyre actions, actions wich are unjustifiable no matter wich way you look at it.
Blaming an entire race or religion becouse of the actions of a few is what got us in this mess in the first place, its what got this world in the state its in, with that in mind how can ANNYONE claim it to be a solution?

I mean its not like we dont have manny recent examples to draw upon for proof that blind vengeance is not the way to go and in fact was the exact reasoning Osama and his cronies used to justify theyre actions.
From the treatment of Germany by the other West European countries after WW1 wich created the climate and breedingground within Germany where fascism could thrive thus leading to the rise of Hitler, to the massacres called for by a Belgian Catholic priest between Hutu´s and Tutsi´s in Africa that left a million people death a few years ago and manny milions more inbetween those in various conflicts around the world the examples of what NOT to do are there and plain to see for everyone who simply takes the effort to see em.

Dehumanisation and putting the blame on those you know and dehumanise is a verry dangerous tactic and once it is used by those claiming to do good the lines get blurred and whatever good intentions one might have had are lost.
After all its much easier to justify so called colateral dammage or sometimes even outright execution of people iff you see them as inhuman *******s instead of people who might feel the same feelings you do and share youre dreams, ideals and fears.
Its easier saying hey we bombard and have sanctions against Iraq becouse Iraq is evil and wants to destroy us then it is to say Iraq has a military dictator who sadly we( Europe and the US ) put in his seat after wich he brought death and destruction to his own people, we have brought that evil upon the innocent Iraqi people who used to enjoy a great quality of life so we should do the honorouble thing and correct this grave historical mistake we have commited against the innocent people of Iraq.
Nope its much easier keeping sanctions in place and calling the aproximatly 1.2 million deaths it caused colateral damage.

The things I just brushed upon sadly happen al around the world, from the Arab worlds dehumanisation of Israel and America to the dehumanisation of the Arab world by Israel and America.
The dehumanisation is greatest in times of crisis and sadly thats exactly why its so dangerous.
An American girl shortly after the attack on the twin towers asked me why people hated the US, I gave her a link to the following two stories: http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/palestine/news2001/independent091201.html ( by Robert Fisk The Independent a London based newspaper, The awesome cruelty of doomed people 9/12 2k1)
and http://www.globalexchange.org/september11/bostonglobe091601.html ( where an Egyptian waiter asks Chris Toensing from The Boston Globe why Americans hate them )
The links are not the original links that I send her, when I did a search forthese two articles this website had em both while the original links were hidden behind a payservice in order to see them, they are the original content tough.
Another American girl told me she hated being an American and she would like nothing more then to leave the US and live her life in Canada, Europe or Japan.
I told her that she too was making the same mistake by hating the country she was born in, hating an entire nation, race, religion or whatever is wrong period.

We are humans and as such sadly we seem to be unable to learn from the mistakes of oure forefathers and we seem to be destined to make the same mistakes over and over again.
We have to tough, we have to so we as humans as people of this planet can survive.
We have to look within ourselves as much as we look to others and make sure the breeding grounds of hatred get eliminated not only to ensure oure own survival but the survival of oure neighbours as well and oure neighbours neighbours and theyre neighbours and so on.
Like I said history is rife with examples, Hitlers rise to power becouse the UKs and France´s insistence on humiliating the German people after WW1 thus providing Hitler the opportunity to blame the jews and give hope to the easily impressed by saying they were part of a superior race.
The insane show of might between Russia and the US that went on for decades and claimed manny other countries as victims cought in the crossfire and breeded hatred between the two countries and manny others for decades.
The creation of Israel and the current conflict with the Palestines and within the Arab world and the occupied teritories.
The war between Iraq and Iran in the 80s.
The tensions between India and Pakistan.
Sadly I could go on and on and on.

Sigh ill end it here, this became way longer and politicised then I had intended it to be, it started out with me trying to tell you people what 9/11 had meant and means to me and look what I ended up saying.
My apologies for that.

So what will I do to honour this grim anniversary then?
Ill keep a minute of silence and pray for the souls of the innocent victims that fell that day in a city and country that are verry dear to me, for them and for all innocent victims of terror, be it by way of terrorism, sanctions, war, hunger etcetera worldwide.

PS I visited Ground Zero late May.
It had a greater effect on me then I tought it would, I couldnt control my emotions and while praying for those who had lost theyre lives my tears flowed freely.
Im happy it did, im happy that after 31 years on this planet I still have the ability to have these feelings towards others and that despite the sorry state this world is in that it has not managed to make me lose the ability to feel for this world and its inhabitants regardles of who or what they might be perceived as by others.

Regards Ali

[maximus]

Thanks. I read your other post (http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=17922&start=10) already.

[maximus]

Lots of people hate him....wasn't there an entire newsgroup dedicated to thinking up ways to kill him? Or was that his character....

Really ? That is new to me. I was annoyed everytime I saw him on TV, but I thought that it is not him, just the character that he played. I mean, if the script mentioned that he has to act as an annoying kid, we cannot blame him for doing it perfectly, right ?

What still amazes me is that on that day I woke up shortly after the first tower fell, without knowing anything was happening, and thought "must turn on the news" even though I hardly ever watch morning news. It was then that I realized how far human emotion can stretch.

I was in a dentist's waiting room when that happened. The TV suddently have a news flash on the attack, for a few seconds I thought that was a trailer of a movie. I remember how all people around me suddently stop whatever they are doing, and focus on the TV. A very sad day for humanity, indeed.

[bjornkeizers]

I sure remember the day it happened. I came back home from doing some shopping.. and I heard something on the radio about an attack in the US... but wasn't sure what it was. So, I turned on CNN. This was .. I think between the first and second plane. I watched the thing collapse live on CNN 8O I'll never forget that day.

[Kaber]

How quickly the worm turns.

As soon as one person tries to remind us we are merely human, another reminds us he is hated and wrong.

We all die to grow and you reap what you sow.

[Steven Cedrone]

Nice.

Wil has become quite the Flash expert, hasn't he?

--janak

According to his blog this AM, he didn't create the flash tribute (his idea, someone else created it though)...

Still, a lot more tasteful than most of the stuff I saw yesterday...

Steve

[mscdex]

For a second there I thought the movie was supposed to be about Ed Hansberry or something :)

Especially because there was no article description and the title was just "Thanks for the Thought Wil."

That is until I saw the last frame of the movie.

Looks like I need some more coffee this morning :roll: :morning:

Anyway, nice movie.

[DaleReeck]

Who in the heck is "Wil"? :?

Wil Wheaton - played 'annoying know-all teenager' on Star Trek: TNG (may not have been his character's actual name...!). Now writes quite a well know and often quite fun blog.

I always thought that was funny. OK, let's see. We have one of those most complex machines ever devised in the history of mankind. Uh, we'll let the kid fly it :D

[PetiteFlower]

Well he was a *really smart* kid ;)

[Jhokur2k]

I met Wil at a local Amiga shop when he was working for NewTek, demoing the Video Toaster & Lightwave. My first impression of him was "What a jerk"... but after reading articles and his blog in the past years, he has become a nice guy *from the impression given* - people are entitled to make mistakes.

As for wanting to do harm to him, that's sad that people become so obsessed with a show that they believe that a character and the person playing the character are one and the same