[Warning: Long, rambling fund drive request ahead. mjb.]
Six A.M.
Sat down on excavation gravel
by juniper and desert S.P. tracks
interstate 80 not far off
between trucks
Coyotes - maybe three
howling and yapping from a rise.
Magpie on a bough
Tipped his head and said,
"Here in the mind, brother
turquoise blue.
I wouldn't fool you.
Smell the breeze
It came through all the trees
No need to fear
What's ahead
Snow up on the hills west
Will be there every year
be at rest.
A feather on the ground -
The wind sound -
Here in the mind, brother,
turquoise blue.
"Magpie's Song" by Gary Snyder
====
October 9th, 2001. It has been a long, dry summer here in Salt Lake City,
with record heat stretching into October. But last night a storm snuck in
on the heels of a cold front, and this morning I was pleased to see the
white dusting on the mountains above town. October 12th is coming right
up, the day that was traditionally celebrated as Columbus Day here in the
United States. Those of you who have been subscribed for a few years may
remember my "New World" message of October '99 referencing the voyages
sailing off into unknown territory - like me, when I started moving the
Team.Net services away from the U of Utah and to a machine here at home.
And it has worked out well. Some glitches here and there, but nothing too
serious. Well, some folks might think a whole weekend without their email
fix is quite serious, but in general there has been little downtime. And
I'd like to keep it that way, so here it is time for the semi-annual fund
drive.
But I must confess I feel a bit odd about asking for donations at the moment.
A lot of you here in the US of A have been bombarded with requests for money
from all directions for various relief funds. Some of you have already given,
perhaps not only your money, but your blood as well. One list member gave all
there was to give, crashing in a Pennsylvania field with Flight 93. Some of
you may be wondering if local shelters will be able to serve up those
Thanksgiving turkeys, if everyone gives what they have available to relief
funds for New York. What will this Christmas hold in store for those who
celebrate it - a time of joy and peace, or a time of loss and mourning?
No need to fear
What's ahead
Snow up on the hills west
Will be there every year
be at rest.
Life goes on. The sun is rising somewhere on the planet as you read this, a
new day dawning. Hmmm, with subscribers all over the world, can one say
the sun never sets on Team.Net? Earlier this year, I was thinking that this
fall fund drive would be a good chance to try and raise some extra dollars
above and beyond what is needed to cover the daily costs of operation. The
plan was to enhance the web server, perhaps getting another machine so that
the mail server could just do mail, and the web server could do web service,
and the FTP service as well, hopefully providing a bit better response with
the distributed load.
Some of the thinking behind that was to enhance the web service, including
making searchable archives for all the various lists available. The archives
at Listquest have basically been worthless for the last year, looks like
another dot com going belly dot up. So I was planning on making something
available for all the 80+ lists currently served here, as autox.team.net
or a few other domains. For an example of what I have in mind, check out
http://www.team.net/cgi-bin/wilma/british-cars
But getting such archives for all the lists in place would require more
disk space, more backup facilities, perhaps faster machines, and so on.
Maybe it will happen this fall, maybe it won't, we'll see. Boy, keeping
this Team.Net stuff going could drive me to drink!
Speaking of which, there's some new lists out there. A while back I set up
wtc@autox.team.net as a list for discussions about the World Trade Center and
Pentagon attacks. It has maybe half a dozen subscribers at the moment, not
one of the more popular lists. But it got me to thinking about how there
might be a use in having a list for general, sort of maybe automotive related
stuff, maybe just random blather about whatever. In the past I've mentioned
how some of the busier lists are a lot like going down to the local pub with
a thousand or so of your closest friends for a pint and some chat. So, I set
up a new list called the-local@autox.team.net. And on a whim there's also a
new list called single-malt@autox.team.net. These new lists are not under
the control of majordomo, but a different list manager, Mailman. If you've
got web access, go to
http://www.team.net/mailman/listinfo
Maybe someday I'll move all the lists to Mailman, or whatever's next, we shall
see.
That's the state of the autox.team.net world. Here's the request - contribute.
Contribute to the American Red Cross, contribute to the United Way of New York,
contribute to the local charities in your area that may be getting less than
they planned on, as folks give to national relief organisations. Make sure
you are contributing to a reputable group, there are numerous scams popping up,
I imagine.
And if you have 1, 5, 10, 20 or whatever dollars left over, consider sending
in some to support the continued existence of Team.Net. You can do this in
various ways:
Paypal - Send your contributions to team_fat@uswestmail.net
Checks - Send a check, payable to Fat Chance Garage, in US funds, to
Fat Chance Garage
PO Box 58333
Salt Lake City, UT 84158
The foreign currency request from the spring fund drive was quite successful,
I got Dollars, Pounds, Francs, Marks, Rupies, even an Australian Loonie. I
need to take a photo and get it on a web page. Thanks, everyone.
Visa, Mastercard: You can send the info to the Fat Chance address above, or
send a fax to 801-355-5438. Perhaps someday my parts business will have online
credit card processing. Maybe if I weren't spending so much time keeping the
lists running. No Discover or American Express at the moment.
If you can contribute, great, if you can't swing it this time around, no sweat.
We will survive.
mjb.
ps: Okay, maybe next time I'll have the scripts working so each subscriber
gets only one copy of this begging blather, rather than one copy for
each list they are on.
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