10/22/97 - Incalescent, Love-Struck Teen...

     ...pleads to the powers that be to speed
     up the months.

     Why can it not be mid-December yet?  The
     wait is punishing and unfair -- the days
     seem enslaving by themselves, yet as they
     build up, they tend to go by faster.  This
     has gone by much faster than I thought it
     would, but it is still much too slow.  Yet
     another two months to go, plus semester
     finals, spring semester registration, going
     home for Thanksgiving, and all that.  So
     much must I go through just to see the one
     woman I love in this world.

     ...and from now on, Ben acknowledges his
     somewhat grumpy and whiny tone in missing
     Miss Anna, the Swedish high school chick
     who won his heart. ;)

     I want to use the rest of this .plan, which,
     as it may surprise you, deals with people
     other than Anna and myself, to congratulate
     all those who I've had the pleasure of keeping
     in contact with who were nominated for the
     Cool Site of the Year awards.

     Turns out that Maggy won best personal site
     and Lance won best design.  Well, I think
     Maggy's certainly been to Hell and back with
     her site, although she loves the attention,
     I'm sure, which she gets from the whole
     process of questioning herself. ;)  Her
     diary is quite a confession of all that
     which she thinks about herself.  Her design
     is clean and pleasant.  Not at all like
     mine, in either aspect.  Guess who went
     the right route?

     Lance is just the best web designer I
     know without question.  I mean, there are
     other people out there who create some
     amazing stuff, but Lance is the only one
     who has a personal site to go with it.
     He knows what works and can make even
     the simplest brush strokes look like really
     cool Web graphics.  He's always been my
     choice when suggesting where to go for
     great personal site design.  He deserves
     this one.  Hell, he uses HomeSite, and
     anyone who uses THAT can't be all bad. ;)

     Alexis did not win, but then again, it's
     hard to beat the Onion, which is somewhat
     unfair because it is more immediately
     appealing to a reader, with its witty,
     amusing made-up stories that we could
     easily confuse with the dailies.  Alexis
     puts a lot of effort into that which she
     does and she wasn't rewarded for it.

     I respect these people not just because
     they've admitted to knowing me publically,
     or because they've linked to me or anything
     shallow like that.  I've followed these
     people whether they understand that or not
     for a long time now and I have done so
     because they *believe* in what they are
     doing.  They *see* the Web as a place
     acceptable to express oneself and they
     don't look at the Web as some geeky place
     that only some pathetic soul would use
     as an outlet.  They respect themselves,
     so they never feel that way.  They are
     what I want in a personal site.  They are
     THERE.  After all this time, they are
     still there, although they've all somewhat
     stopped updating so frequently and are
     moving on.

     So congrats, guys, and well done.  This
     is just another congratulation to have
     to put up with, I know, but this one
     goes much further than you may realize.

     Even the Rain has moments of clarity
     and understanding.

       "Thunder is good, thunder is
        impressive, but it is lightning
        that does the work."

                          -Twain


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