Neko

 

 






†HAMLET†
†

SHAKESPEARE
†

†Ophelia†
There is a willow grows
ascaunt the brook,
That shows his hoar
leaves in the glassy stream.


Therewith fantastic garlands
did she make
Of crow-flowers, nettles,
daisies, and long purples,
That liberal shepherds give
a grosser name,
But our cold maids
do dead men's fingers call them.


There on the pendant
boughs her crownet weeds
Clamb'ring to hang,
an envious sliver broke,
When down her weedy
trophies and herself
Fell in the weeping brook.


Her clothes spread wide,
And mermaid-like
a while they bore her up;
Which time she chanted
snatches of old lauds,
As one incapable
of her own distress,
Or like a creature native
and indued unto that element.


But long it could not be
Till that her garments,
heavy with their drink,
Pulled the poor wretch
from her melodious lay
To muddy death.



layout by soulkarma

Harry Potter!
05.31.04 (10:29 pm)



Life at Hogwarts
Full Wizard Name?
Age?
House?
Favourite Teacher?
Pet?
Blood?
Animagus? TRUE
Wand Unicorn Hair/Yew
Best Class... Care of Magical Creatures
This person doesn't like you very much Lily Evans
This Marauder has a crush on you... Remus Lupin
Campatability with your Marauder... - 32%
This quiz by LiselleDeFontaine - Taken 2933 Times.
New! Get Free Horoscopes from Kwiz.Biz

3 Comments
 
$61,000.00
05.31.04 (5:46 pm)
That's how many virtual bucks I have to spend.. What to buy, what to buy...

=http://img21.photobucket.com/...

Discovery HSE
· Base MSRP $41,350
· Alveston Red $0
· Alpaca Beige Leather $0
· Rear Air-Conditioning $750
· "All in One" Overhead Mounted DVD Player $2,000
· Cold Climate Package $500
· Rear Seat Package $1,000
· Trail Edition IV $1,495
· Rear Lamp Guards *
· Front Lamp Guards *
· Wraparound Protection Bars *
· Loadspace Retention System *
· Rubber Footwell Mats *
· Waterproof Seat Covers *

[i][u][b] $47,095 [/b][/u][/i]
[LINE]
Now what to do with the remaining $13,905...

[i]I think a nice thanks for everything you've done for my Dad would be good...[/i]
4 Comments
 
Hell has frozen over.
05.30.04 (9:41 am)
I have found myself agreeing with This...

The following is a weekly =http://www.cbsnews.com/storie...60 Minutes commentary by CBS News Correspondent [u][b]Andy Rooney[/b][/u].
------------------------- ------------------------- ------------------------- -----
If you were going to make a list of the great times in American history, you'd start with the day in 1492, when Columbus got here.

The Revolution when we won our independence would be on the list.

Beating Hitler.

Putting Americans on the moon.

We've had a lot of great days.

Our darkest days up until now have been things like presidential assassinations, the stock market crash in 1929, Pearl Harbor, and 9-11, of course.

The day the world learned that American soldiers had tortured Iraqi prisoners belongs high on the list of worst things that ever happened to our country. It's a black mark that will be in the history books in a hundred languages for as long as there are history books. I hate to think of it.

The image of one bad young woman with a naked man on a leash did more to damage America's reputation than all the good things we've done over the years ever helped our reputation.

What were the secrets they were trying to get from captured Iraqis? What important information did that poor devil on the leash have that he wouldn't have given to anyone in exchange for a crust of bread or a sip of water?

Where were your officers? If someone told you to do it, tell us who told you. If your officers were told – we should know who told them.

One general said our guards were "untrained." Well, untrained at what? Being human beings? Did the man who chopped off Nicholas Berg's head do it because he was untrained?

The guards who tortured prisoners are faced with a year in prison. Well, great. A year for destroying our reputation as decent people.

I don't want them in prison, anyway. We shouldn't have to feed them. Take away their right to call themselves American - that's what I’d do. You aren't one of us. Get out. We don't want you. Find yourself another country or a desert island somewhere. If the order came from someone higher up, take him with you.

In the history of the world, several great civilizations that seemed immortal have deteriorated and died. I don't want to seem dramatic tonight, but I've lived a long while, and for the first time in my life, I have this faint, faraway fear that it could happen to us here in America as it happened to the Greek and Roman civilizations.

Too many Americans don't understand what we have here, or how to keep it. I worry for my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren. I want them to have what I've had, and I sense it slipping away.

Have a nice day.
13 Comments
 
A shespecies quiz
05.30.04 (9:05 am)
DDelightful
RRespectable
AAltruistic
MMagical
AAppealing
!

Name / Username:


Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

MMagical
UUnusual
GGloomy
GGreat
LLoving
EEdgy
SSilent

Name / Username:


Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com
8 Comments
 
Virtual Check Amount - $37,700.00
05.30.04 (8:59 am)
The Prosperity Game
sponsored by ProjectProsperity.org

Student loan payment!

::does the happy no more student loan dance.
6 Comments
 
Unconscious Mutterings
05.30.04 (6:04 am)







=http://subliminal.lunanina.co... target=_blank [image]um.jpg[/image]
  1. Lover:: Prince
  2. Ridiculous:: prive of movies
  3. Oscar:: where's Dean Martin's?
  4. Tennis:: star
  5. Account Balance:: 0
  6. Hickey:: eeeeewwwwww
  7. License:: to drive
  8. Breathmints:: mmmmmmm
  9. TexMex:: mmmmmm
  10. Stepmother:: ain't going there


2 Comments
 
What I learned from, Van Helsing, the Movie
05.29.04 (6:03 pm)
Creatures of the night are not gender specific.

Kate Beckinsale does a pretty mean Catherine Zeta Jones.

Hugh Jackman looks best unkempt.

That if you need someone to make specialized weapons for your do-gooding, Q is a better bet than a mere friar.

Films really don’t need to be set in any specific era as long as you’ve got good special effects. Same goes for plots.

Gremlins with wings attached do not vampire babies make.

Vague biblical references that lead to confusion not illumination should just be left out of films.

I will sit through pretty much anything.
13 Comments
 
The Prosperity Game
05.29.04 (12:43 pm)
Okay, so I forgot to spend yesterday's check. I now have $37,700 dollars to spend.

Easy, finishing off the credit card and making a chunk of a payment into my student loans.

~fin~
8 Comments
 
Mood swing!
05.28.04 (8:09 pm)
I had a pretty big mood swing in the last day or so. I am not sure if it was the reality of my life changing so drastically finally hitting me or an adrenaline bottom out.

My body aches,I'm not sleeping at appropriate times and nothing seems to satisfy me.

No, I am not bipolar - no more than the rest of you, and less than a great lot of you!

Slowly I will recover from this downturn, but if you are out there reading this, and have a little extra good energy to send, think of me.
9 Comments
 
Prosperity Game
05.27.04 (9:02 am)
What the hell am I going to do with $8,900 dollars?

Okay, here goes,

1 plasma tv - =http://www.plasmatvbuyingguid...$8,495.00

1 14k White Gold Diamond Bracelet =http://www.jcstore.com/cgi-bi...$425.00

1 expensive supper at El Fogo de Chao. :) $70.00
11 Comments
 
If you voted for Bush, don't look here.
05.26.04 (10:04 pm)
Which is your favorite?

15 watt fraud, Appointed Doofus, Arbusto, AmBush,
aWol, aWol Bush, Junior, Baathist Butt Boy, Big
Brother Bushco, Billionaire Gay Boy, Biotchy,
Bloodthirsty Chimp, Bogus POTUS, Boy Blunder, Boy
King, Bubba The Destroyer, Bubble Boy, Bush Lite,
Bushinc., Bushfraud, Bushit, Bushocchio, Bushwa,
Chimp, Chimpi Amin, Chimp Moron, Chimp-In-Chief,
Chimperor, Chimpleton, Chimpy McSmirkster, Chimpy W
Bushling, Chimpy McCokespoon, Con Artist-in-Chief,
Cheerleader-in-chief, Commander-in-Chimp,
Coward-n-Chief, Crawford Creep, Corporate W hore,
Crook-n-thief, Deceiver-in-Chief, Demented Cowboy,
Desert Shrub, Deserter-in-Chief, Dictator-In Chief,
Dictator Dumbya, Dim Son, Disaster Monkey,
Doofus-in-Chief, Dogma Dumbya, Dopey Dubya, Dumbass,
Drunk Texas Prarie Monkey, Dubya, Dumbya, El Shrubbo,
El Smirko, Failure Bush, Failure-in-Chief,
Failure-in-Thief, Felonious Monk, First Imbecile,
Flight-Suit-in-Chief, Flubya, Frutex Mendax,
Fundraiser-in-Chief, Furious George, Gee Duh,
Geralissimo Stupido Arbusto, Genghis W. Bush, George
Benedict Arnold Bush, George The Lesser, George W
Fustercluck, George W. Jerk, George W Manson, George
Wayne Gacey, George WTF Bush, Governor, Gutless Wonder
Boy, Gweeb, Hamster King, His Fraudulence, His
Illegitimacy, His Royal Shrubness, His Simian Majesty,
Hocus POTUS, Holy-Roller-In-Chief, Idiot Prince,
Illegal Unsurper, Illiterate Fraud, Imbecile-in-Chief,
Imperial Resident, Jellow W. Bush, Jenius, Jesus W.
Bush, Kennebunkport Kowboy, King George, Li'l Snippy,
Liar, Liar-n-Thief, (Little) Lord Smirkelroy, Loose W.
Cannon, Loser Bush, Mad Cowboy, Make-Believe-Boy,
Marionette-in-Chief, Mayor of Chimpelton,
McFlightsuit, Miserable Failure, Monkey-in-a-Man-Suit,
Occupant, Osama Been Bush, Oxycontin Bush,
Panderer-in-Chief, Paybacker-In-Chief, Pendejo Jr,
Perpetual Puppet, Pinocchio President, Pinoche Bush,
Plastic-Turkey-Boy, Poseur-in-Chief, pResident,
(p)resident, President Warhardon, President Weak, Lazy
and Stupid, Pretend-a-dent Junior, Pretender-in-Chief,
Pretzel Boy, Preznit, Prince George, Puppet Boy,
aWagmire, Resident, Resident Evil, Scurrilous George,
Shrub, Shrubya, Simian Boy, Simian King, Simian
Shrubya, Smirk, Smirking Chimp, Smirking DUfus,
Smirky, Smirky McHandjob, Snippy, Son King, Spurious
George, Squatter, Squatter-in-Chief, Stuttering
George, Taliban Texan, Terrorist Bush, Texas Dauphin,
Texas Prarie Monkey, Texas Twit, The Bush Boy,
Totalitarian Texan, Toxic Texan, Traitor, The
Doublespeak Dumbass, Traitor-In-Chief, Unelected
Fraud, Unelected Monkey, Unelected Pinhead, Walking
Hand-Job, West Wing Ignoramous, Whistle Ass
22 Comments
 
Images, my real name, and verious web nom de plumes...
05.25.04 (12:24 pm)

Web tag mania!









Powered by CGISpy.com
12 Comments
 
Prosperity and the infinite Madness
05.25.04 (12:17 pm)
Okay, so I was out of Pocket yestersay and now have $5,500 dollars to spend in the Prosperity games virtual world.

Easy.

Credit card payment baby.
[LINE]
For the curious, I was out of pocket yesterday because I was leaving Houston for the last time and had a job interview in Dallas. I got the job but turned it down. The money was just not there. The people, hours and establishment were great -it was the money that was abysmal.
[LINE]
I know I'm not much fun anymore. It's just a stage, thiss too will pass. Maybe they've come upwith some more internet tests for me to take - or I'll join somke bizarre on-line RPG...
9 Comments
 
Words for the new Millenia...
05.25.04 (12:08 pm)
Essential Additions for the workplace vocabulary:

1.: BLAMESTORMING: Sitting around in a group, discussing why a
deadline was missed or a project failed, and who was responsible.

2.: SEAGULL MANAGER: A manager who flies in, makes a lot of noise,
craps on everything, and then leaves.

3.: ASSMOSIS: The process by which some people seem to absorb
success and advancement by kissing up to the boss rather than working
hard.

4.: SALMON DAY: The experience of spending an entire day swimming
upstream only to get screwed and die in the end.

5.: CUBE FARM: An office filled with cubicles.

6.: PRAIRIE DOGGING: When someone yells or drops something loudly
in a cube farm, and people's heads pop up over the walls to see what's
going on (also known in Latin as Doggus Lookaroundus).

7.: MOUSE POTATO: The on-line, wired generation's answer to the
couch potato.

8.: SITCOMS: Single Income, Two Children, Oppressive Mortgage.
What yuppies turn into when they have children and one of them stops
working to stay home with the kids.

9.: STRESS PUPPY: A person who seems to thrive on being stressed
out and whiney.

10.: SWIPEOUT: An ATM or credit card that has been rendered
useless because the magnetic strip is worn away from estensive use.

11.: XEROX SUBSIDY: Euphemism for swiping free photocopies from
one's workplace.

12.: IRRITAINMENT: Entertainment and media spectacles that are
annoying but you find yourself unable to stop watching them.

13.: PERCUSSIVE MAINTENANCE: The fine art of whacking the crap out
of an electronic device to get it to work again.

14.: ADMINISPHERE: The rarefied organizational layers beginning
just aboe the rank and file. Decisions that fall from the adminisphere
are often profoundly innappropriate or irrelevant to the problems they
were designed to solve.

15.: 404: Someone who's clueless. From the World Wide Web error
message "404 Not Found", meaning that the requested document could not
be located.

16.: GENERICA: Features of the American landscape that are exactly
the same no matter where one is, such as fast food joints, strip malls,
subdivisions.

17.: OHNOSECOND: That miniscule fraction of time in which you
realize that you've just made a BIG mistake.
11 Comments
 
What would you do...
05.23.04 (8:26 pm)
with $1300.00 virtual dollars? I am putting a down payment on my credit card.only 10 grand or so more to go.
3 Comments
 
Unconscious Mutterings
05.23.04 (6:25 am)








=http://subliminal.lunanina.co... target=_blank [image]um.jpg[/image]


  1. Finale:: season
  2. Martial arts:: movie
  3. Flirt:: can't bother
  4. Energy:: low
  5. Flavor:: strawberry
  6. Guess?:: WHO?
  7. Accomplishment:: packed
  8. Prom:: dress
  9. Diploma:: unnecessary
  10. Bloody:: hell


2 Comments
 
virtually paid
05.22.04 (9:11 pm)
Today's check was for $800.00
[LINE]
I decided I was going to use that money to rent a moving truck, people to pack my things and move them back home. I figure with the packing materials et al. that's a good $800 right there. I don't have much stuff.
2 Comments
 
Graphic
05.22.04 (7:46 am)

=http://img21.photobucket.com/...
6 Comments
 
Prisoner Abuse
05.22.04 (7:44 am)
The first thing I saw this morning was John McCain speaking on the abuse and now murders of Iraqui prisoners.

He said we must heal.

*We?*

What about the entire Arab world?

What about the families of those caught on tape and film?

What about the entire world and how they see us?

We don't need to heal. We need to prosecute these people for war crimes. WAR CRIMES. Crimes against humanity.
3 Comments
 
Houston
05.22.04 (6:45 am)
I am back in Houston packing the last of my things.

Well, okay, I am back in Houston lying in bed and feeling grumpy that my stomach hurts.

Later however, I will be packing.

Felt awful all day yesterday - emotionally. Nothing like having to pack up your life to make you reflect on the what could have been's...

6 Comments
 
$400 Virtual bucks.
05.22.04 (12:38 am)
What I bougght - the entire Harry Potter series, Unabridged, on CD's. $350.00

2 tanks full of gas - $50.00

A new box of tarot cards - Gothic Vampire series - $25.00

two weeks of yoga sessions - $75.00

2 Comments
 
$200 Virtual bucks.
05.19.04 (10:05 pm)
Today I am using my virtual money to have my car detailed - its an SUV so that should take about $100 of it. I want the carpets shampooed, a wax job and strawberry stuff sprayed on it.

Speaking of a wax job, I shall also use the extra $100 for a full body wax - hehehe - and a 30 minute massage.
2 Comments
 
The Prosperity Game
05.18.04 (5:06 pm)
Day 1: $100.00 check from the universe.

I paid my auto insurance for next month and got a manicure (virtually of course).

Read the workbook that goes along with the game and kept an open mind.

[LINE]

Yes, I am forcing others to read this, my daily exercise in metaphysical and financial growth.
5 Comments
 
Play your way to inner liquidity
05.17.04 (9:27 pm)
=http://www.spiritualpartnerin...

It couldn't hurt...
5 Comments
 
WOSIB
05.16.04 (7:30 pm)
=http://img21.photobucket.com/...

=http://www.wosib.org/Women of Strength and Inner Beauty
2 Comments
 
Unconscious Mutterings
05.16.04 (12:13 am)




=http://subliminal.lunanina.co... target=_blank [image]um.jpg[/image]

  1. Playoffs:: always
  2. Morris:: dancers
  3. Break up:: ironic
  4. Eggs:: basket
  5. Parker:: Peter
  6. Hardy Boys:: Hot in the 70's
  7. Deluxe:: edition
  8. Protection:: condoms
  9. Girl Scout:: cookies of course
  10. Salsa:: mmmmmm, tasty
0 Comments
 
Bed All Day
05.15.04 (8:08 pm)
Me: Tell me I didn't just nap for two hours.

Stepmother: Well, Drama you've been in bed all day.

ME: But I haven't been sleeping.

Stepmother: BUT you HAVE been in bed.
[LINE]

Yes, I was in my bedroom for a good part of the day. I was working on my computer, looking for jobs, playing with psp and occasionally picking up a book to read. I also left the room several times for some fresh air - even read on the front porch.

She wouldn't know that because she was outside most of the day. Her horses are her life. They make her happy.

I like my reading and computer time. They make me happy.

Since entering her life my behaviour has aggravated her. I was never clean enough, active enough, enough like her. the longest I ever managed to live with her was for three months. Three long months of not eating, walking on egg shells and just generallly being an emotional wreck.

I have to find some way to cope in this situation. It isn't good for either of us.
4 Comments
 
Maudlin
05.14.04 (9:52 pm)
I was driving home with a load of my stuff today and by conicidence just happened to have my rather large CD Collection in with the rest of the rabble.

As a teenager I was obsessed with Rod stewart - not stalker obsessed, but OCD obsessed. I have everything the man has ever released, t-shirts, hats - you name it, I got it.

Anyway, I pulled out the cd version of an old favorite. I must have listened to the tape a hundred times as a teen, but I don't think I really felt the words to this particular song until today.

Here it is, and I promise, no more schmoopy break up talk after this. ...probably.

[LINE]
IN MY OWN CRAZY WAY
(F. Miller, T. Seals, E. Setser, R. Stewart)

The mystery of you and me
Is coloured blue on blue
We wanted more than we could give
We couldn't see it through

You won't believe these words from me
But still they're mine to say
I will always love you
In my own crazy way

I tried to keep my sanity
By being someone else
Someone that you could hold on to
I only fooled myself

I knew the part, but in my heart
The role I couldn't play
But I will always love you
In my own crazy way

I know I didn't do the little things
That could make a woman's heart sing
forgive me
And darling if I brought you any pain
I'm trying to explain
In my heart, I was always true

The memories of you and me
Are written on the wind
And sometimes, girl, I'd give the world
To do it all again

And if you need to call me
I won't be far away
I will always love you
In my own crazy way
7 Comments
 
What happens...
05.11.04 (11:25 pm)
...when an entity abuses prisoners of war and brazenly ignores the Geneva Convention?

The abused and their supporters feel =http://www.nytimes.com/2004/0...;en=b9ec546772afcab3& ei=5062&partner=GOOGL Ejustified in retaliating.
1 Comments
 
What I did this weekend.
05.11.04 (7:36 am)
Left boyfriend, moved out of lovely 3 bedroom home in Suburbia to the wilds of SE Oklahoma and my parents home. Heaven help me.

I need chocolate, a good martini and a little rest.
9 Comments
 
Observation
05.10.04 (10:28 pm)
My stepmother has gone from normal to passive aggressive mode in record time.
2 Comments
 
See No, Hear No, & Speak No - sort of...
05.10.04 (5:49 pm)
=http://img21.photobucket.com/...
4 Comments
 
Unconscious Mutterings
05.09.04 (6:38 pm)
=http://subliminal.lunanina.co... target=_blank [image]um.jpg[/image]




  1. Vagina:: Monologues
  2. Racism:: Southern Man
  3. Mother's Day:: eh.
  4. Fire alarm:: loud
  5. Elvis:: Costello
  6. Pregnant:: not me thank god
  7. Vacation:: all I ever wanted...
  8. Waffles:: cat name
  9. Perpendicular:: 5 syllables
  10. Hospital:: emergency room


2 Comments
 
WRONGDOERS
05.07.04 (1:26 pm)
The President called the cretinous, criminals abusing prisoners in Iraq, "wrongdoers."

Holy toledo Batman, we've got to do something about this!

Wrongdoers. The president can kiss my ass.

Oh, there are also a group of Baptists calling for the removal of Southern Baptist Youths from public schools, they are the new great satan you know.

This is perfect.

I never foresaw my country going in this direction when I was young and naive.
10 Comments
 
Goodmorning
05.07.04 (10:07 am)
=http://img21.photobucket.com/...
3 Comments
 
Dylan Thomas
05.06.04 (10:02 am)
[b]Sometimes The Sky's Too Bright[/b]

Sometimes the sky's too bright,
Or has too many clouds or birds,
And far away's too sharp a sun
To nourish thinking of him.
Why is my hand too blunt
To cut in front of me
My horrid images for me,
Of over-fruitful smiles,
The weightless touching of the lip
I wish to know
I cannot lift, but can,
The creature with the angel's face
Who tells me hurt,
And sees my body go
Down into misery?
No stopping. Put the smile
Where tears have come to dry.
The angel's hurt is left;
His telling burns.
Sometimes a woman's heart has salt,
Or too much blood;
I tear her breast,
And see the blood is mine,
Flowing from her, but mine,
And then I think
Perhaps the sky's too bright;
And watch my hand,
But do not follow it,
And feel the pain it gives,
But do not ache.

Dylan Thomas
5 Comments
 
Pat Tillman
05.05.04 (1:01 pm)
=http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/art...True hero athlete
Day's theme: Challenge yourself
Gwen Knapp
Tuesday, May 4, 2004
©2004 San Francisco Chronicle | Feedback | FAQ



Just when we thought we had a pure and simple hero, a millionaire athlete who gave up wealth and fame to become the ideal patriot, to make the ultimate sacrifice, his friends and family complicated everything. They turned Pat Tillman into a human being Monday, showing us what was really lost during that ambush in Afghanistan, insisting that we question every assumption we've made since he died an icon on April 22.

Yes, there were uplifting tales, moments when tears and pride swelled in everyone watching Tillman's memorial service at the San Jose Municipal Rose Garden. There were jarring moments, too, and they carried the message of the afternoon -- "challenge yourself" -- more powerfully than those laden with conventional inspiration.

Tillman's youngest brother, Rich, wore a rumpled white T-shirt, no jacket, no tie, no collar, and immediately swore into the microphone. He hadn't written anything, he said, and with the starkest honesty, he asked mourners to hold their spiritual bromides.

"Pat isn't with God,'' he said. "He's f -- ing dead. He wasn't religious. So thank you for your thoughts, but he's f -- ing dead.''

What? This didn't happen for God, as well as country? A professional athlete turned soldier, and we're supposed to believe that he'd have no use for piety? Robbed of a cliche, where does that leave us?

Challenge yourself.

His brother-in-law and close friend, Alex Garwood, described how Tillman handled his duties when he became godfather to Garwood's son. He came to the ceremony dressed as a woman. Not as a religious commentary. He was doing a balancing act.

"We had two godfathers, no godmother,'' Garwood explained. And what NFL player turned Army Ranger wouldn't don drag to make that math work?

Who on earth was this guy?

He was the same person who often talked late into the night with his linebackers coach at ASU, prying apart stereotypes about college football players and future soldiers.

"He talked about gays,'' Lyle Setencich, the former ASU assistant said. "He asked me, 'Could you coach gays?' " Setencich told Tillman yes. He could, and he had. He repeated that at the memorial service, televised on ESPN, in front of the sports world, showing another side of a coach, another side of an American hero.

Challenge yourself.

Tillman talked about everything, with everyone. According to the speakers, he had read the Bible, the Koran, the Book of Mormon, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, and he underlined passages constantly. Garwood recalled how he'd mail articles to friends, highlighting certain parts and writing in the margins: "Let's discuss.'' A quotation from Emerson, found underlined in Tillman's readings, adorned the program.

It concluded with this: "But the great man is he who in the midst of the crowd keeps with perfect sweetness the independence of solitude.''

Yet he was a team player. When the Arizona Cardinals lost their kicker early in a game, Tillman cut into a conversation between the team trainer and head coach Dave McGinnis. "You know who's kicking off for us now, don't you?'' McGinnis said, quoting Tillman, a safety who had no real credentials for the kicking job. Most pro athletes wouldn't risk humiliating themselves that way.

"Pat didn't want to be the focal point, but he liked being out front,'' McGinnis said, "if that makes any sense.''

Tillman's roommate in the pros, Zack Walz, took a newspaper clipping to the podium and read about how he and some Cardinals teammates had made up faux dog tags for themselves, declaring their unit a band of warriors. "Soldiers, battlers, lay it on the line,'' Walz said, sniffling as he scanned the clip. "What the hell did we know? Listen to the words. Listen to the metaphors. ... How hollow they ring.''

When Tillman came home late last year from his first tour of duty, Walz said that he understood the difference now, what genuine war and real dog tags meant. A couple of weeks later, he received a gift in the mail, Tillman's dog tags.

"I'm holding them in my hand now,'' Walz said, "but they will never be this far from my heart again.''

Tillman's respect for his former teammate holds another lesson. Since he died, it has been fashionable to contrast his sense of duty with the petulance and inflated sense of importance in modern athletes. Still, Tillman was an athlete as much as he was a soldier.

It has been said over and over that he wouldn't want to be revered while we ignore the other soldiers lost in Iraq and Afghanistan. Would he want his former friends in football belittled, their values bashed as a way to measure his sacrifice? That's too easy.

Challenge yourself.

By the time the ceremony ended, after his brother and brother-in-law sipped the Guinness that Garwood poured in Tillman's honor, the funny, thinking, wild, crazy man had come to life. The family's loss, the loss of every soldier's family, seemed more real.

Tillman wasn't an icon anymore. He was a man you wanted to know, to spend time with, to lift a Guinness alongside. But that had become impossible, the price of war, because his brother was right. Pat is dead. He's f -- ing dead.

E-mail Gwen Knapp at gknapp@sfchronicle.com.
13 Comments
 
Mem'ries, like the shadows dodododo...
05.04.04 (9:57 am)
Misty watercolored mem'ries of the way we were...

sulky was talking about all her college buddies and how she missed them and lost track of them. As a tribute she listed them.

Here's my tribute.
(oh, and if you are not on here, you have contact with me so don't grumble)

Sean and Becky Adams
"Daddy" Mark Patrick
Jeremy Young
Carla Kuykendall
Cami Wood
Alex Kurota
Robbie Rogan
Nick and Chanda Mackey
Michelle Caldwell
Rhonda McCall
Kelly Templin
Larry hurst
Dustin Dill
Brian Hill
Chad Clipperton
Amy Perrin Clipperton
Jeff Fernandez
Daniel Lewis
Rooster, Paul Marcum
Heidi Butler
Amanda Cox
Scott Gaines
Aaron Adair
Eric Stanglin
Ember Bennet
The Comptons
Toby (you know, I "dated" him and can't remeber his last name)
Julie Cuesta
Stefanie Buckles
David Self
Jakarta Washington
...and a host of others
7 Comments
 
Is this who we are?
05.02.04 (6:36 am)
Like it or not the =http://straitstimes.asia1.com...,4386,248935,00.htmlrest of the world has seen these pictures and it reflects on each and every citizen of the US.

What were they =http://msnbc.msn.com/id/48811...thinking.?

Where are there =http://slate.msn.com/id/20998...souls?

We are better than =http://www.newyorker.com/onli...that.

12 Comments
 
Unconscious Mutterings
05.02.04 (6:18 am)





=http://subliminal.lunanina.co... target=_blank [image]um.jpg[/image]
  1. Sexy:: chocolate
  2. Clique:: Clinique
  3. Pledge:: sorority
  4. Carbs:: give me some
  5. Dream Job:: not to work
  6. Sweeps:: week
  7. Soundtrack:: to my life
  8. Hero:: my grandma
  9. Shave:: yesterday
  10. Christina:: babaojay


2 Comments
 
Night Night
05.01.04 (6:47 pm)
=http://www.sweet-plastic.net/... target=_blank [image]DRAMA_1330356620.jpg[/image]
3 Comments
 

     


Site design by Soulkarma.