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             + doomed to obscurity + issue ten + may 7th, 1996 +

                   $$$$ $$$$ssssssssssssss   .s&$$P"""Q$$$$$s.
  .s&""""""""$P"""Q$     $ $     $     ggggggggggg $     $     $          $
  $..........$     $.....$ $.....$     $         $ $.....$     $..........$
  $::::::::::$     $:::::$ $:::::$     $.........$ $:::::$     $::::::::::$
  $||||||||||$     $|||||$ $|||||$     $:::::::::$ $|||||$     $||||||||||$
  $iiiiiiiiii$     $iiiii$ $iiiii$     $|||||||||$ $iiiii$     $iiiiiiiiii$
  $!!!!!!!!!!$     $!!!!!$ $!!!!!$     $iiiiiiiii$ $!!!!!$     $!!!!!!!!!!$
  `9$$$$$bsssd$$$$ `9$$$bsssd$$$$$P' `9$$$bsssd$$$$$P'

  + "i've never met a girl that i didn't beat & engulf in flames." - styx +

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   _____
 6/     ^..^  "my heart belongs to ramen soup"
  \_____(oo)  by - mogel
   WW  WW

        greetings, my lovely friends!

        this month in dto history has been a glorious plethora of confusion,
 anger, love, betrayal, disruption in the law, discovery, excitement,
 reunion, growth, angst, bliss, & all-around wacky times.  however, we still
 persevere through thick & thin - all for you, mighty dto reader!

        forgive my excessively happy mood, but a lot of things in my life
 have been finally working out for me.  in the middle of this
 gosh-golly-great state i'm in, out comes time to fry up my good ol' editor &
 slap you guys with another helping of our oh-so sexy style.

        we're so cute.

        when you read through this issue of dto, there's going to be one
 obvious element that will stick out in your heads more than anything - a
 theme!#  dto's *coincidental* look at love.  i guess spring time's emotional
 buzz is coming loud & clear all over the dto member list, like a disease.

        yes, dto tackles the very concept of love in its various angles &
 stages.  on a related front, i was surprised to find not one, but *two*
 articles relating to the concept which i joke about quite a bit,
 "cyber-love"; that is, meeting a girl/guy from "online".  strangely enough,
 however, this phenomenon is becoming all-too common lately.  it's been
 hitting more & more computer geeksters as the day goes by.

        you know what's funny about it?  as bizarre & potentially disastrous
 meeting someone via computer & then getting into a relationship is - there
 is, of course, nothing wrong with it inherently.  i'm not talking about the
 long distance "you live in china & we're probably never going to meet, but
 you never know!#" & not something actually solely dedicated to modem contact
 ("we dcc chat every day - but he didn't op me on irc, should we break
 up?!#"), just the idea of initial communication.  the computer, of course,
 is a way of seeing someone's personality, intelligence, & ability to
 communicate layed out before you, crystal clear, ready to be liked or
 disliked.

        but love is such a funny notion, in every way.  what's acceptable to
 one person isn't to another.  what's wonderful to one person, might be
 disgusting or stupid to even their closest friends.  love is one of the most
 difficult to define words in existence, along with "art", & the english
 language does a horrible job at using both.

        wouldn't it be great if you could buy your relationship's progress in
 stores?  think about it.  various messages with random cliche coupons such
 as "let's just be friends" or "i'm thinking about you" or "you mean a lot to
 me" or "i love you" or, of course, the very popular "fuck you, you
 emotionally fucked up obsessive computer geek!  stop stalking me!".  that
 would be a REAL book of love, man.

        "love is more fun than james earl jones on a trampoline!"
                                                        - midget caesar

        in this issue, aside from tons of sappy stuff, you're also going to
 see various comebacks from writers that we haven't heard from in a while,
 such as kaia, crank, shadow tao, kojak, & sweeney erect.  in coming issues,
 you should expect the return of fake scorpion, sed, neko, vanir, & others.
 another thing to note is the silly ascii portraits of all the dto writer's
 heads (a nice touch, eh?) that appear before every writer that wrote this
 month - a total of _16_!#  woo woo.  also interesting to note, as almost a
 retort to jamesy's "girls can't write" article last issue, we have *four*
 girl writers in dto this month.  that's an e'zine all-time record, i
 believe.  who would have thought that a 'zine could successfully put out
 articles by styx, jamesy, *&* girls & still not have any problems?  i think
 that's just a taste the power of _dto & you_!

        as i gaze over this issue of dto one last time, i see a lot of
 encoded (some more than others) messages of personal, real-life things going
 on in all of our various lives.  this is recorded history, folks.  our
 history.  a lot of things have been going down this month, but let's please
 stay 'connected' no matter what happens between any of us.  

        good news!  the new & super awesome, souped-up dto homepage has
 returned, after prism.net crashed *yet again* last month (we still love you,
 teletype).  the page was created & is maintained by jamesy.  check it out:
 http://wwti.iway.net/dto.

        in other news, a month after it's establishment, the official "dto
 love shack" was declared illegal & after cops invaded the premises - me,
 black francis, & dead cheese were forced to move out & go our separate ways.
 subletting sucks.  but it's just *another* example of THE MAN trying to
 bring us down.

        last but not least, _the_ e'zine event of the year, dummercon, is
 coming in july.  the attendees include *almost* every member of dto, a
 plethora of #zines regulars, tons of wacky philly kids, & more.  information
 on the event will be released soon, so keep your eyes open.  this year's
 dummercon will make history.  after all, anyone that doesn't have a part in
 wrecking yet *another* one of rattle's computers is missing out.

        at any rate, this issue is a huge treat, clocking in at 83k.  munch
 away, pookiebear!

                                     ____
                                  ___|  |_ _
                               ___|  |  _______
 ----------------------------- |     |  |     | -----------------------------
 ----------------------------- |  |  |  |  |  | -----------------------------
                               |  |  |  |  |  |
     doomed to obscurity ten   |  |  |  |  |  |   & all contents therein ..
                               |  |  |  |  |  |
 ----------------------------- |  |  |  |  |  | -----------------------------
 ----------------------------- |_____|  |_____| -----------------------------
                                     |___ _

  1 - my heart belongs to ramen soup
        by - mogel
  2 - doomed to obscurity ten & all contents therein ..
        by - mogel
  3 - white lumps: someone likes the outdoors a lot!
        by - dead cheese
  4 - identity crisis
        by - kaia
  5 - julian simmons & the psychic friends network
        by - sweeney erect
  6 - the happy game
        by - juke
  7 - why everyone should smoke pot
        by - styx
  8 - a girl he never met
        by - kojak
  9 - gimme access!
        by - mogel
 10 - we are the sons of no one
        by - murmur
 11 - no outlet
        by - crank
 12 - phat rhymes & dope thymes: old skool
        by - dead cheese
 13 - you think it's over now?
        by - james hetfield
 14 - i bet it would be really funny if
        by - puck
 15 - shine six/eight & the last musty smells
        by - eerie
 16 - asking for it
        by - black francis
 17 - nowhere to go but up?  who says we're moving?
        by - whoops
 18 - realize
        by - shadow tao
 19 - the original evil sugar - condiments; chapter 1000 
        by - murmur
 20 - mistaken
        by - girlie17

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      ___
     /o O\   \ /
    |  ^_ | o||   "white lumps: someone likes the outdoors a lot!"
    /\___/\//     by - dead cheese
   | toast |

        someone likes the outdoors a lot.  i think it might be me.  i like to
 swing.  i like to run.  i will play in the sun pouring down.  i will pick up
 sticks and swing them, pretending i am a great warrior!  i will grasp the
 ants that walk by between my thumb and fingers and watch them squirm, until
 they bite me!  i will eat the ants that bite me, but not the ants that are
 nice - for they shall receive a much nicer fate.  i will throw them into
 the pond and teach them to swim!

        someone likes the outdoors a lot.  i think it may be freddy.  freddy
 likes to pick the apples from the tree and eat them right there!  freddy
 will smell the morning air and feel the dew between his toes and laugh in
 delight because there is nothing more wonderful than dew 'twixt the toes!
 freddy will catch up his baby sister in his arms and run!  simply _run_!
 sometimes freddy will stumble on a rock and his sister will cry, but that's
 ok.  freddy knows how to make his sister feel better.  he has only to take
 the rock he stumbled upon and smack the sweet child in the head three times
 (no more, no less!) and the dear girl will be quiet for hours.

        someone likes the outdoors a lot.  i'm not quite sure who it is!
 whoever it is must love the sun, the trees, the animals, the air, the dew.
 someone must love the outdoors a lot!  i love the outdoors a lot!  i really
 do!

        someone likes the outdoors a lot!  i think it might be me!  i will
 sing to the treetops!  i will play in the running waters!  i like the
 outdoors a lot.  i really, really do!  why don't you believe me?  why do you
 argue?  i like the outdoors, and you should, too!

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    .---.
   | o.o |
   |\ - /|   "identity crisis"
  ,|_)_(_|.  by - kaia
  /       \

 $ pico journal.txt

  __________________________________________________________________________
 |                                                                          |
 |                                                                          |
 |       it'll never happen to us ..                                        |
 |                                                                          |
 |       we'll never be art fags,                                           |
 |         nor new age children,                                            |
 |         nor alternafreaks,                                               |
 |         nor lousy poets searching for meaning in toothpaste.             |
 |                                                                          |
 |       we'll never be mean, rough-n-tumble motherfuckers,                 |
 |         nor shiny happy invertebrate 'yes'-kids.                         |
 |                                                                          |
 |       we'll never be stuffed literary turds,                             |
 |         nor intellectual fuckers writing songs about fermat's last       |
 |         theorem.                                                         |
 |                                                                          |
 |       well, maybe *she* was an intellectual fucker -                     |
 |                                                                          |
 |                                       .. in a sense.                     |
 |---                                                                       |
 |       the meaning of Life is to LOVE.                                    |
 |---                                                                       |
 |       no.  the meaning of Life is to be HAPPY.                           |
 |---                                                                       |
 |       *NO.  the meaning of Life is SHIT.*                                |
 |                                                                          |
 |       um, not to be lewd or anything;  maybe i need to reword.           |
 |                                                                          |
 |       life is what you produce.  life is something that happens out      |
 | of necessity:  you don't choose writing or poetry or music or art or     |
 | politics or fame;  these things choose you, so you produce them.         |
 | there's no search for meaning involved.  life is processing your         |
 | environment - growing as you make certain parts part of you and          |
 | discarding the gunk that doesn't matter.  although sometimes it's        |
 | hard, life is something you should be able to walk away from with a      |
 | sense of accomplishment.                                                 |
 |                                                                          |
 |      in summary, life is .. well, Life *is* shit, and that's all         |
 | there is.                                                                |
 |                                                                          |
 |<EOF>                                                                     |
 |__________________________________________________________________________|

        so i woke up this morning with a mild hangover and my girlfriend
 lying on top of me, her belly to mine, her long legs a softly entwining work
 of art.  i took a quick mood check and even though my head was pulsing, i
 decided i felt neither unhappy, nor unsad.  just generally content.  kind
 of.  but also restless, like i needed something.  a cigarette?

        perhaps.  i groped for the pack on the bureau.

        {fuck!}  my fingertips wouldn't reach.  i feared moving an inch,
 however, lest i nudge her from her beautiful dreams.  how silly, i thought,
 to be trapped between my girlfriend's legs!  many men would give their right
 hand to be in my position ..

        she was the one whose wildly innocent eyes had secretly claimed a
 semester of my physics class lust.  back then, i had constantly worried she
 would catch me staring.  i didn't know why, but i would have sooner bathed
 in windex than ever let this happen!  so, each of my precious gazes had
 yielded only a brief burst of eye-candy:  <look over;  see what she's doing;
 huzzah!  she's not talking to the boy next to her;  ok, now hurry, look
 away .. phew!#  close call!#>

        .. and after nearly a thousand glances of her pretty silhouette, i
 had been able to close my eyes and trace the outline of her back.  how i had
 ached to do this for real!

        and now, with our two-month anniversary approaching, its *reality*
 was like anything surreal.  {surreal kinda like a giant eyeball}, i mused. 

        {giant eyeball, heh.}  giant eyeball with an iris of blue sky and
 fluffy clouds.

 {miro, miro on the wall 
 who's the fairest of them all?  
 my girl, cause *she's* a giant eyeball .. }

        i was so just-woken-up silly!  i mouthed a funky air-drum and began
 to rap to myself, in whispers, about having no foresight and 20/20
 hindsight.  it was amusing, for a while.  then i got bored and stopped ..
 all was silence.

        i stared at the tom & jerry wallpaper and yearned once more for a
 nicotine fix.

        silence.

        the craving passed as i synchronized our breathing.  maybe if i
 concentrated hard enough, our hearts would synchronize, too.  after all,
 after nearly two months, i'd noticed how our minds were very much alike ..

        was it really true, or just what i wanted to believe?  although
 there's no one i respected more than someone who could disagree *well* with
 me, i've always adored how she's agreed with almost everything that's ever
 exited my mouth.  she'd validate a fucking fishbone were i to spit it out.
 what persuasive magic i must work!

        {heh, strange how whenever i get verrry extra-specially close to her,
 like, a tongue's length away from her soul, all i see is my own reflection,
 staring back.}

        i thought some more.

        {heh!  maybe that really *is* all she is.  a giant eyeball
 reflecting - me back to me.  a giant eyeball with an identity crisis!}

        hmm.  i couldn't tell whether the thought had been *really* deep, or
 just deceptively indulgent as morning-silly musings often are.  either way,
 it amused me and i ached to record it, but my powerbook was also out of
 reach, right next to the cigarettes.  again, i fought the urge to squiggle
 away ..

        {honeygirl, i must really love you}

 only
 for a moment 
 every cell in my body lived for her only.
 and my life was completely fulfilled but
 for a moment
 only - 

        my tummy did this little flip-flop as i craned my neck to kiss her
 cheek, and then, almost magically, she shifted so i could free my arms and
 fumble for what i wanted .. huzzah!#

        {powerbook?  bingo!}

        quickly, unthinkingly, i typed thoughts relating to my girlfriend and
 on the meaning of life.

        {cigarette?  bingo!}

        i put the cigarette to my lips and my mouth watered in anticipation
 of a smoke.

        {lighter .. ?}

        ack!  where was it?  it wasn't on the table.  goddamnit!  i lifted my
 head to see if the lighter had fallen onto the carpet, but i couldn't see
 over the edge of the bed, and i *still* really didn't want to wake my
 girlfriend .. 

        sigh. 

        i inhaled the cigarette raw.  {ech!#}  i decided i must really
 reaallly dig my woman, because pretending to smoke was nothing like the real
 thing. 

        "i love you."

        she probably didn't hear me through her sleep.  

        better that way, i figured, because one of the only original opinions
 she harbored was that you only tell people you love them when you know them
 like yourself. 

        by her definition i didn't think we'd ever "love" each other.  doubts
 on our compatibility had nagged me from the very beginning.  her hobby of
 choice, for example, was babysitting.  by my definition, however, i loved
 her very much.  to me, LOVE was such a paradoxical word - both beautiful
 and stupid, rare and commonplace Life.  it was so many things .. including
 garden-variety lust and infatuation - the stuff dreamers go through like
 toilet paper.  the stuff that's as common as bad guitarists in wannabe punk
 bands.  the stuff that's nothing more than a psychoactive drug.  the stuff
 that's unavoidable, since we're all just animals with selfish genes, anyway.

        {resistance is futile!}  

        her beauty keeps me coming back for more .. maybe, by her definition,
 *that's* what i loved - i certainly knew her luscious, creamy body like my
 own flesh!  i totally admitted i hungered to devour her physicality far
 before her scattered mind and its goddamn agreeability and sloppy reasoning.

        like, some of her twisted logic i'd never understand.  why did she
 waste her soul on arguing pointless points and finding the exception to
 every single fucking rule in the universe?  why had she joined the grammar
 police?  why did she torture her soul by chaining her mind to the idea of
 purity? 

        heh.  to trick the boys into thinking she's hard-to-get, perhaps.  or
 for security, perhaps - "as long as i don't fuck them, i won't be a whore,
 but anything else is fair game."  yeah?  so 69 me baby let's bring in
 another lover now work me harder i want it up the ass!

        um ..

        anyway, i didn't know why she chose to share her virginity with me,
 something about my being worth it, she said.  ..WORTH IT?!  bring in the
 testosterone and a pretty girl, and all rationality is gone out the window!

        {icky.}  the cigarette was starting to get soggy between my lips, so
 i spit it out.

        i'll never understand her, but i positively love her!

        the first time we went all the way, it was magic.  and now - now we
 fuck like rabbits.  its a nice counterbalance to the intellectual boredom.
 i can honestly say i'm blissful in her company.

        i used to call this bliss "happiness," and sometimes i still feel
 myself falling into the trap of thinking i'm happy when i'm really just
 blissful.  until people realize the difference, they'll never ever be
 "happy," because true happiness is nothing special, it's just Life.

        ah!  the meaning of life?  i rushed to record it while i still
 remembered.

        if my girlfriend was neither my life, nor my happiness, what was she?

        {she's my heavenly bliss!}  

        bliss.  it's nothing more than another psychoactive drug.  just
 like most songs are nothing more than 4 chords.  bliss, it's just a drug,
 that's all .. once you take enough, it fucks up the whole happiness scale.
 your mind resets its idea of "normal" to what used to be "bliss," and
 suddenly, anything that would have otherwise been normal would be as boring
 as enya, and anything that would've otherwise been bad would toss your soul
 tumbling headfirst into a fiery pit of hell with all the boys who seduce
 women by looking pathetic.  then, you realize it's time for everyone to
 learn some new chords.

        happiness, love, bliss, lust, whatever.  it was *all* just a part 
 of Life. 

        i put my fingertips to the keys, but nothing came out.  for the life
 of me, i couldn't remember most of my thoughts from the last few minutes.

        then, suddenly, it came to me in a flash:  the meaning of life.  it
 was different from all the rest, and so obvious and common-sense!  i let it
 rip as fast as my fingers could type.  then i put the powerbook down, and
 put my arms around her, and put my thoughts to rest in her sweet warmth.

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  .-----.
  v0   0v
   /\x/\   "julian simmons and the psychic friends network"
  | ||| |  by - sweeney erect
  | ||| |
  '~^^^~`

        one day julian simmons woke up bored and cranky and decided he needed
 a way to share his misery with many others.  so he checked his morning paper
 and discovered an ad for a job in telemarketing.  since there are few better
 ways to spread human misery than to be a telemarketer, julian hopped in his
 porsche and applied for the job.

        as it happened, the job was not technically telemarketing.  it was,
 in fact, a job working on a 1-900 psychic line.  his job was officially
 described as "answer the phone.  keep the poor bastard on the line for as
 long as you can."  julian decided this was going to be a job he liked a lot
 while he kept it.

        the first caller was an old woman.  "hello?  hello?"  julian began to
 mumble incoherently.  he figured she'd probably be hard of hearing and she'd
 think he was saying something.  it worked.

        "hello?"

        "nargle bargle."

        "what's that sonny?"

        "harple darple."

        "huh?" she asked concerned, "i'm hard of hearing."

        with some urgency julian repeated, "*harple darple*."

        after a few minutes he began to add words.  "hagry pagry die unless
 murgle druggle listen to me kolp huppy buried in grappo .. " and so on and
 so on.  after about ten minutes she hung up clearly panicked.

        his next call wanted to know where to invest his money.  "i'm closing
 my eyes.  i'm imagining something.  i'm broadcasting it to you," said
 julian.

        the man got excited.  "i see it!"

        "what is it?"

        "buy ibm stock."

        "nope, that's not it."

        "oh.  at&t?"

        "nope."

        after about ten minutes julian said, "look, i'm not really thinking
 of anything.  so do us both a favor and hang up."

        his next caller was a rabid new age believer named sandra.  she
 sounded very pretty.  in julian's experience very little but good could come
 from desperate, naive women.

        "stay right there," he said.  "you need sex magic and i'll be right
 there."

        "hurry," she said.  "i need you bad."

        "you've got no idea, babe," he said and ran out to his car.  it would
 be a good day after all.

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   .x%%%x.
   ( O_O )  "the happy game"
    \ o /   by - juke
   -`~~~'-

        this evening, i think i shall kill myself.  do not worry.  it's only
 for enjoyment.  please do not think i am depressed or suicidal.  nor do i
 have any sort of psychological or mental illnesses.  i assure you my head is
 on as tight as it could possibly be, thank you.  it is just that i like to
 play games.

        i do not play these games very often.  in fact, they are quite rare.
 it is just that when i play them - i play as hard as i can and do not stop
 until the game has reached the end and the winner has been declared.  i play
 so hard sometimes people question whether i am really playing a game at all.
 i know i am, and that's all that matters to me.

        this, which for now i will dub "the suicide game" is a new game.
 what am i thinking?  of course it is a new game.  i would be dead otherwise,
 wouldn't i?  of course i would.  more inane comments by me.  anyways, back
 to my fun.

        you know what?  i really do not like calling my little game "the
 suicide game."  it sounds rather negative.  let's call it "the happy game."
 yes, i like that much, much better.

        i think i should bring up the question of my psychological state
 again.  please have total faith that i am 100% sane.  i have no doubts in my
 mind about that and i hope you have no doubts as well.  i can not play my
 game if you have doubts.  please be honest.  do any have you have any doubts
 at all?

        no?

        good, but please do not be afraid to comment at any moment before my
 game starts.

        this evening i am going to ask for you complete patience.  my games
 are never quick and easy, nor are they easy to understand in thy mind.  my
 games are for the intellect, for no one less than an intellect could even
 comprehend the complicated and intricate rules and instruction one must
 follow in this game.

        now that i am sure of our understanding of my psychological state and
 i am sure of your complete patience, i will begin the first and last "happy
 game."

   good night everyone.  i hope you all have a nice evening, i know i will.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   ____
  (-o0-)  "why everyone should smoke pot"
  | __ |  by - styx
  |__U_|

     ou should smoke po tbecause it makes you feel good.  and warm.  it ameks
 you drink a ot because your mouth gets real dry and you get hungry nd pizza
 and dibarettes tatse better.  it doesnt' cost as much as coke or nothing so
 you don't go broke.  you also amke friends with all of the really cool kids
 at shcool not like those magic the gatering faggoits.  it alsot makes you
 play instrunments better.  my riend's brother said that it situmlates the
 left side of your brain so you actally get smarter when you smoke pot.  well
 ont' get me wrong you can't take your SATs on pot or drive or nothing!!!!
 you just draw better pictures and play the guitar better when you pot pot.
 that is all.  it isn't addicting either.  iread in _high timees_ that ethse
 doctors in nevad a injected THC equivlant of about for thousand joints into
 this mouse and it shit on itself and all but after a couple of days it was
 fine!!!  like my friend;s dog that ate all my friend's pot and for a bunch
 of days it sat in the corenr and shit on hinmself.  it was fnny but after
 some time the dog shit outside like he is supposed too.  also when chicks
 smoke pot they get all honry and want to get down your boxesr and shit!  my
 frined's brother says that he has beeen with more chicks high then not.
 there is also some music and movies adn books you dont' fully undestand
 until when you are stoned.  like alise in wonderland, pulp fictoin, pink
 floydd, mtv's oddities, 2001 a space odissey, and many others!!!!!  trust
 me, they take on a totallyd ifferent meaning!  just rememeber:  why did god
 putt pot on the eardth if he did not want us to use it????

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
  .-----.
  | o.o |
  |  _  |   "a girl he never met"
  _\___/_   by - kojak
 /  \_/  \

        he poured all of himself into her.  his thoughts, hopes, dreams,
 aspirations, letdowns, loves, regrets - she knew what he was & who he wanted
 to be.  but who was she?  a nickname, in a sense, & nothing else.  an
 enigma.

        there was a familiarity in their conversation.  a connection.
 something he couldn't explain.  he could tell her anything and not have to
 worry about her telling all his friends.  she was a confidant, someone to be
 trusted.  he was at a point in his life where he needed someone to trust.
 someone to hold on to.  without her, he might've slipped over the edge.
 many a night had been spent staying up late talking to her, expressing how
 he felt, waiting for a reaction.  she'd always know just what to say and
 when to say it.  after talking to her, he'd feel infinitely better about
 whatever situation was troubling him .. even if it was a situation that
 involved their relationship.  he was content while talking to her.

        no other girl had made him feel so himself.  he didn't have to worry
 if he was looking bad that day or didn't get a lot of sleep & wasn't
 responsive during conversation.  she allowed for things like that, something
 that other girls hadn't.  he'd always wanted someone to be his best friend.
 sure, he'd had best friends in the past, many of them being a confidant much
 like her, but she was different.  she was the _real deal_.

        at the same time that he shared all these things with other people,
 he would get self-conscious.  the notion that someone knew who he was at his
 core, the raw basics of his being, scared him.  he didn't want to be known,
 he wanted to remain anonymous, a voice in the crowd.  he'd never been known
 to have open, heart-to-heart talks with people, always struggling with his
 emotions by himself.  he lived a lonely life, in a sense.  not physically
 lonely, for he was a very outgoing person with tons of "friends", but how
 could he consider them that?  they were simply acquaintances, people who he
 asked how they were doing when he saw them.  nothing more, nothing less.  he
 knew everything about everyone, absorbing other people's problems, but now
 problems of his own were building.  he was becoming a steam cooker, the
 pressure just welling up inside, until one day, he'd blow.

        but that's just what she was to him, a release.  he could tell her
 anything and everything, and she'd still be there at the end of his rambling
 offering him a response, usually logical.  this treatment was something he'd
 never felt before, and he became addicted to it.

        because this girl knew who he was, what he was, he felt that he had
 to know her.  he consumed himself with finding out about her - having her
 tell him exactly what was going on in _her_ life.  their talks became more
 and more serious.  topics of all varieties popped up in conversation.  he
 found himself attracted to her; not for her great looks or body, but for
 HER.  the way she acted, the way she talked, the way she reacted - he became
 immersed in her.  he wanted to be a large part of her life, but how could he
 tell her this?

        she knew him, and he knew her.  they were perpetually together, yet
 always apart.  the distance between them wasn't a relationship distance,
 but a physical distance.  the physical distance between them tore him apart.
 he wanted so badly to reach out and touch the delicate skin of her face.  to
 hold her near him and feel her breathing.  it wasn't about sex, it was about
 commitment, love, & expression.  he wanted to merge with her, become one.

        "why must she be so far away?" he thought on a regular basis.  he
 tormented himself with thoughts of what *could* be between them, how he'd
 like things to be.  he pictured them together, holding hands and walking
 down a crowded city street, two people among thousands - yet not intertwined
 with the masses around them.  a world where only the two of them counted and
 nothing else was of any particular importance.  he felt in tune with her, as
 if they had already joined minds.

        her mind intrigued him, always twitching, thinking, creating.  never
 before had he been so attracted to someone.  it was her that would make him
 complete, he thought, and only her.

        slowly, he became an overbearing person.  his constant emotions
 became a stress on their relationship; him pushing her away at the very
 same time he needed her close.  the distance between them grew, matching the
 geographic distance.  he felt cold and alone, having no one to talk to.
 finally, she was gone; physically there, a friend, but nothing more.  she
 was another "acquaintance"; something that could've been so much more, if
 he'd only been able to approach the situation in another way.  he felt sorry
 for her, himself - the two of them.  he'd done this to himself, it was
 nothing that he could fix.  he was delegated to the position of friend, when
 he could've been a lover.  this realization hurt him, struck a chord deep
 within his soul.

        "there could've been so much more," he wrote in a letter to her, "we
 could've been perfect.  a dream.  now that dream is shattered, and with it,
 my being."

        it was a girl he never met.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 "gimme access!"
 by - mogel

 date: 7:27 pm  tue apr 16, 1996        number : 23 of 24
 from: mastermindz                      base   : private mail
 to  : mogel                            refer #: none
 subj: new user application             replies: none
 stat: normal                           origin : local

        yo, sup, i'm spunky fucky monkeys mutha fuckin man. u dig? i can zone
 on the telephone all night long u kno.. i am the elite mutha phucka, the man
 from down unda', there never will b anotha'.. you see what i'm sayin? these
 phools that i'm playing,.. you know they all used to the game but you'll
 never beat me cause' you don't even know my name.. you dig?
        haha.. anyway. i'm on all the elite boardz in da' area and i am a
 member of e-vil software. i'm old enough to kno whatz goin on, and where it
 be.. u dig? and uhh, i also do ansi on the side.. u dig, so i'll talk to u
 l8r master-bater..  hahaha.

        - mastermindz [e-vil]

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    _____
   /_____\
  // o.o \\   "we are the sons of no one"
  (|  _  |))  by - murmur
   __\ /__
  /_ `-' _\

        he didn't know what she looked like, had only this vague image.  he
 didn't know how'd she sound in person, he'd only talked to her on the phone
 a couple times.  really, he didn't know too much about her.  all he knew
 he'd learned via a computer.  a few computers, actually.  his computer and
 his dad's computer and the whole big computer lab at his expensive liberal
 arts university.  but what he did know, he liked.  he liked that a whole
 lot.

        she was flying in on wednesday.  it was her spring break, and she
 wanted to get away from home.  he wasn't really sure when she got the
 airline ticket what she hoped to do when she got there.  but in that span of
 three weeks he got to know her a lot better.  he'd known about her for over
 a year, because of this old bbs he used to call.  that's the first place he
 saw her handle anywhere.  but he'd never so much as seen a picture.  he
 really had no idea what to expect.

        it was wednesday already.  wow.  already?  it had been three grueling
 weeks of anticipation and nervousness.  in that time he got to know a lot
 about her.  but you can't replace actual physical interaction with much of
 anything.  he knew that.  he knew that full well as he got on board the bus
 to meet her at the airport.  he didn't have a car, see.  had to take the
 bus.  it was a nice bus, he figured, so far as buses come and go.

        three hours of reflection on the bus.  what would she look like?
 would her online personality really be her?  or was it an illusion?  he had
 no way to know.  for he, he wasn't the same online as he was in person.  how
 could he be?  nobody could act out his true persona online.  there are so
 many things you can't appreciate about someone over a computer screen.

        their conversations had gotten really serious.  they found each
 other's images, their online personas, to be truly amazing.  they clicked.
 but that was online.  there are so many differences between being online and
 being REAL.  they'd find out, of course.  he hoped like hell that all was
 not a fairy tale.  but all he could do was wait and see.

        really, he'd already made his mind up that she was extra-special and
 was everything he's always hoped for in a girl.  she said the same about
 him, too.  it would take calamity to strike things down.  but how can you
 not worry about calamity?  put all your eggs in a basket like this and BOOM!
 something not-so-good is liable to happen.  he knew better.  i mean, hell,
 he might NOT find her attractive at all.  it wasn't that unreasonable, was
 it?

        the bus was stopping.  he was at the airport.  first chance he got,
 he checked the time.  then he checked the arrivals.  her flight was on time
 and was scheduled to land in .. fifteen seconds!  he was worried she'd
 already be off the plane before he got to the terminal.  that would kind of
 sabotage the ideal he had of the situation.  she'd be wandering around,
 looking for him, but he wouldn't be there yet.  it would take away some of
 the excitement of the encounter that he had imagined.

        he got to the terminal and found that indeed the plane was landed
 and docked.  but he couldn't tell if anyone had gotten off or not.  after a
 minute he became pretty convinced that the passengers were still on the
 plane.  the crowd around him appeared to be waiting for people as well.

        sure enough, the doors open and people started streaming off.  he'd
 been there almost five minutes now.  perfect timing, he thought.  now it was
 just a matter of picking her out.  he roughly knew what dimensions she was,
 height-wise, hair-wise.  how hard could it be?

        after what seemed like an eternity of sizing people and realizing
 that septuagenarians were not what he was looking for, anciness set in
 really heavily.  he was beginning to get really concerned.  not really too
 concerned, maybe, but the suspense was getting to be absurd.  someone
 practically perfectly matching her height and hair had already gotten off
 but walked on by.  it was maddening.

        finally, in a pack of miscellaneous persons that all looked roughly
 the same to him, someone matching her description walked off the ramp
 leading from the plane.  she looked puzzled, vaguely lost in the airport.
 she walked very slowly, and he stood where he was, roughly in the main
 walkway, possibly making an inconvenience of himself.  they stared at each
 other, trying to figure out if he was he and she was she and they were
 sufficiently sure and she came up to him and dropped her bag and they hugged
 each other.

        she was finally here, he thought.  i wonder what the heck she's
 thinking.  boy, i hope she likes what she sees.  he practically forgot that
 he had to do the same thing in reverse; being so caught up in worrying about
 what she thought about him, he almost forgot to form an opinion about her.
 they went down to baggage to claim her other bag and hurried out to catch
 the bus back, which got there only two minutes after they got to the bus
 area.

        they headed for the back of the bus after they got on.  he was still
 trying to figure her out, trying to convince himself that this was the girl
 he thought she was.  she didn't look quite like he expected; but he really
 had no preconceived notion to go on.  he'd been forced to make up a generic
 model of what she might look like for lack of knowledge.  he spent so much
 time reconciling that he finally knew what she looked like that he almost
 forgot to bother to actually think about what she looked like.

        as the bus got underway, they kept on talking.  it was sort of
 awkward, because he didn't really know what to say and he was still uptight
 about what she was thinking.  he was quickly catching on, though; she was,
 in fact, exactly what he'd hoped she'd be.  at least, she fit the mold.  he
 hadn't had exact notions, of course.  but he still wasn't sure what she was
 thinking.  he was acting shy.  he was uncomfortable in the seat on the bus
 and fidgeted and still acted shy.

        his mind was made up that everything was right.  he knew it in his
 heart.  he wanted just to hold her hand now, to tell her that that's what he
 felt.  but his timidness held him back.  he wasn't ready.  he didn't feel
 the timing.  he kept staring at her hand on her leg, wanting just to reach
 out and grab it, to hold it and have it, but he wasn't sure how to.  and he
 still didn't really know what she was thinking.

        they kept talking, he kept fidgeting and staring at her hands.  he
 didn't know what to do.  he wanted to do something.  it seemed to him they'd
 already been on the bus for an hour.  he only wanted to hold her hand right
 now and he couldn't even bring himself to that.  he wanted a spark, a sign,
 he wanted a nudge any sort of aid he could get from her.

        so he kept figeting and staring at her hands, at her face, at her
 legs, watching her hand placement on her legs, wanting the left hand on her
 left leg free so his right hand could just reach over and grab it and hold
 it and have it but he still couldn't bring himself to do it so he kept
 figeting and staring and talking and fidgeting and staring and talking and
 staring and talking some more.

         a silence ensued.  a short silence.  he was going nuts but was
 somehow mildly relieved by the silence.  after a moment she said something
 to him, while he stared down at his own hands.

        "whatcha thinkin'?"

        he paused.  his mind cleared.  he felt his nerve finally returning.

        "do you reeeaaaalllllyyy wanna know?"

        "yeeaahhhh."

        he reached his right hand to her left and grabbed it, held it, had
 it, finally, finally making a statement.  he seemed to be blushing but it
 made no difference to him because he'd finally done it and there was his
 hand and her hand and they were together.

        he to this day doesn't remember the next few moments in very
 particular detail.  all he knows is that after some hand fidgeting, some
 hand jockeying, a couple glances at each other, he was surprised to find
 that they were kissing, kissing on the bus.  she'd said "kiss me on the
 bus" before.  they both knew that that was an old song, even though they
 weren't sure who by.

        everything he'd hoped for seemed to come true for him during her
 visit.  he became quite convinced that she was in fact everything he'd ever
 wanted from life, and he wasn't about to, and isn't about to, let her go for
 anything.  now he knows what she looks like, what she sounds like, what she
 smells like, and he sees years and years ahead of them in tranquility.
 those years are but a vague image to him, though, and only time will tell
 what will come of the future.  but he had a vague image before, and the
 reality of that image was good, very good.  and he has nothing but an
 optimistic view of this vague future.  he liked his future, what he could
 see.  he liked it a whole lot.  but he doesn't know what she sees in her
 future, their future.  he can only speculate.  with time that too will come
 into his, their focus.

        for now, in their present, all they can do is be young and free.
 their lives started anew, with new promises, new potential; they are the
 bastards of young, the sons and daughters of no one.  "bastards of young".
 isn't that an old song?

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

   \ O__
    <     "no outlet"
  _/ \_   by - crank

         the sunlight caressed her dark hair as he had done so many times,
 with wonder and amazement that someone such as her could exist, she's so
 perfect for him.  sitting lithely on the grass with her legs to the side,
 she spoke to him, to his interior, but he wasn't listening to what she said
 as much as to the sounds she made.  this is so much more than love, he
 thought to himself.  i care about her more than i ever have anyone else in
 the world, and we'll be together always.  i'll never let her go.

         she paused in her monologue then, and looked across the field to a
 small grove.  she reached to her face and moved her finger lightly along her
 bottom lip, a habit of hers that usually meant she was deep in thought.  he
 looked to the grass around him, pulled on a weed.  looked at her briefly as
 she looked at her hands.  the sunlight makes her hair reddish.  it's very
 pretty.  she becomes prettier every day i spend with her.

         she continued on with her words.  he felt the rays of the sun
 pressing into the back of his dark green shirt and gently warming the back
 of his neck.  the breeze felt wonderful.  what more could he ever need
 besides days like this spent with her?  before her, he'd never felt love,
 and he feared that without her, he never would again.  she loves him, too,
 though.  he could feel it.

         her cold blue eyes looked upwards to meet his, and snapped him back
 into reality from his reality.  he not only heard, but listened to what she 
 told him next and had been telling him for the past half hour: things need 
 to change.  he's not enough anymore.  he's not making her happy, and she's 
 going to do whatever it takes to make herself happy regardless as to the 
 consequences.

         "i thought you loved me," he said to her.

         "i did," she answered back, unable to meet his eyes any longer.

         he quietly asked if she were breaking up with him, expecting but not
 receiving a negative answer.  very surprised, he began to rattle off things
 she had said to him, empty promises she had made about lifelong commitment,
 their shared future together .. god, she doesn't even look upset for what
 she's doing to me!

         he watched as she rose from her seated position, grass blade
 imprints on her bare shins.  she gathered up her books and her windbreaker,
 and cast a last glance at him.  he couldn't meet her eyes.  he couldn't
 raise his head.  she turned and walked away, to the edge of the grass and
 through the parking lot, as he stared through tears at her receding form.
 she disappeared into a building across the way, without once looking back on
 him.

         he was once sitting in the grass, the warm sun at his back, not a
 speck of white in the bright blue sky.  but now, a cloud drew over his sun,
 and for a lifetime his world became grey.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 "phat rhymes and dope thymes: old skool"
 by - dead cheese

        i was walkin' down da strip da other day / 'n i saw a _fine_ piece of
 meat comin' my way. / i said, "damn bitch.  you lookin' good tonight." / she 
 look at me all wack like she know i ain't right / and she said, "sheeeit 
 homey, don't you know? / i ain't a bitch or a ho. / i keeps my chin up  
 high, / my money on my mind, / 'n a hand in my pocket dat keeps me on mine."

       <work it, work it, baby>  hell, yeah.  <talkin', talkin', to the lady>

        awwww shit. / my mind is a pit. / i likes my condoms big 'though i
 know dey ain't fit. / dat's cuz i'm smooth, g. / i'm the place to be. / i
 treat a hooker right, / then i wax all night. / "wussup, sugar?  i gots da
 key to your lock." / "you keep your key in your pantz, i'll keep my hand on
 my glock." / haha, yeah. / dey don't want a man. / dey wants a bitch wit'
 big hands.

       <work it, work it, baby>  haha, yeah.  <talkin', talkin', to the lady>

       i'm stuck in a rut. / i decides to give up. / i heads back to my crib
 at the end of the block. / i can't cross the street or i'll get beat by my 
 pops. / i opens the door 'n i screamz, "oh no!" / cuz my momz is up 'n down
 wit' dat same damn ho. / i runs to my room / eats a bag of shrooms / i pulls
 down my pantz 'n my fruit of the looms. / i looks at my wonder / bigger den
 thunder / as i starts to plunder / my brotha'z room / i finds what i want /
 a blunt 'n a cunt / i stares at da bitch while i smacks my runt / i'z about
 to break time / bust open a lime / i rolls my eyez in my head puts mine on
 mine

       <work it, work it, baby>  shit, yeah.  <talkin', talkin', to the lady>

        word to all my homeys in da house!  peace out to the brothaz 'n da
 sistaz dat wuz good to me 'n mine.  awww yeah.  peace out.

                                - riboflava

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
      ____
     ///\\|\
    || Oo ||   "you think it's over now?"
    __\__/__   by - james hetfield
   /   o    \
  | |  T   ||

        it's just the beginning, you fool.  nothing is ever over.  we all
 have memories.  we all remember what was.  every single one of us carry
 around memories of our past loves, of our past breakups.  this is just the
 start.

        today is april 30th.  it's almost may.  right in the middle of
 spring.  but here in chicago, it's freezing outside.  winds blow people
 around like they were leaves.  this is no coincidence.  one man's spring is
 another girl's winter.

        enough of the artistic bullshit.  you know what you did.  you held
 inside of your feelings for someone else for six months, not letting anyone
 else know what was growing inside of you.  growing like a mold.  it was
 destroying you.  you had to do something about it.  you had no choice.
 right?

        you haven't been listening to your tori amos cds, have you.

        you could have done something about it six months ago.  it wouldn't
 have grown to be what it is today if you had worked it out six months ago.
 someone trusted you.  someone trusted you to be honest with them.  to let
 them know when things bothered you.  you broke that trust.  you took that
 trust and drop-kicked it.  that is why you are the bad guy, hon.

        of course, you get away with it.  we always do.  but by breaking that
 trust, by not letting that someone else know what was going on when it could
 still have been managed out, you have scarred that other person.  that other
 person will be walking around with quite a bit of baggage for a long, long
 time.  she wasn't just a passing fling.  almost two years isn't just a
 passing fling.  and to not let her know what was going on, to let yourself
 get infatuated with someone else, you have emotionally destroyed her.

        sure, you can tell yourself you needed to do this.  it was the only
 way.  you can tell yourself that she brought it upon herself by being
 clingy.  great.  keep mind-fucking yourself to believe what your penis wants
 you to believe.  that's the way of manhood, dearie.

        hopefully, someday, you will realize what you've done.  you'll
 realize the pain you've caused to this other person.  you've already begun
 to see it, but there is an entire other side of it you will never see.
 hopefully you'll understand that.  and hopefully you won't be the same
 little cock and do the same thing to someone else.

        rationalize all you fucking want.  just be thankful you have someone
 else's bosom to bury your face into, so you don't have to think about what
 you've done.

        what's that?  she took things too seriously, you say?  you didn't
 like someone clinging onto you, you say?  wake up.  infatuation has taken
 over your mind.  there is little difference between your new fuck-toy and
 your past love.  what's that?  little precious makes you laugh?  she talks
 about your favorite tv shows?  she has wacky phrases of her own?  she's just
 another package, one you haven't gotten to open yet.  you're a five year old
 on christmas, just waiting for the next big present in the corner.  what
 happens when you've unwrapped this present?  will you move on to the next
 one?

        i loathe your logic.  if i hadn't made the same mistakes, maybe it
 wouldn't be such a big deal to me. but i have.  i've made them time and
 time again.  but no more.  i've realized what i was doing.  i realized how
 much i've tortured my girlfriend's soul in the past, and i'm trying my
 damned best never to let it happen again.  i won't let it.  will you?

        learn from what you've done.  take a look at the misery you've
 spawned.  of course she still jokes around with you.  she loves you, you
 moron.  any little playful poke into her stomach by you gives her a little
 wishful hope that someday you'll change your mind.  she's in a pathetic
 state.  go ahead and deny it's not your fault.  go ahead and say she
 shouldn't have loved you so much.  go ahead and accuse her of caring too
 much.  then think about what you want from your next acquisition.

        relationships get repetitive.  people aren't as exciting as they used
 to be.  sometimes you just want to get rid of the old ball and chain.  and
 for what?  to replace it for another.  another you don't really know all
 that well.  one that you haven't experienced.  one that's shiny and new.
 but you don't know what's under the wax coating.

        have fun with your new present.  and after a while, ask yourself "i
 wonder what happened to that hamster mom gave me when i was 11," and realize
 you tossed it in the blender.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  %^^^%
  |O o|
  ( ^ )     "i bet it would be really funny if"
   `0'\\    by - puck
     /(_)\   

 oh, and i mean if to the highest
 iffyness that the word itself can
 be taken because the event(s) encapsulated
 in the following lines may or may
 not have happened and the
 surgeon general himself has
 said that believing or not believing
 in the following event(s) may 
 or may not be hazardous to your
 concept of self, your sense of
 identity, but
 anyway

 i bet it would be
 really funny if when
 god gave moses the
 ten commandments
 way up high on
 MOUNT SINAI, if
 during the speech he
 gave him

 assuming that a speech was given,
 and i feel justified in assuming just
 that, because just getting the car
 keys from my dad brings with it an
 hour speech, and hell, these were the
 ten commandments.

 but it would be really funny if
 when god gave moses the ten 
 commandments way up high on
 MOUNT SINAI, if during the
 speech he stopped in the middle
 of one of his words

 and i don't mean stopping in the middle of an
 obvious word, like a compound word, like if
 he cut himself off in the middle of the word
 cupcake right after the cup part .. no, i mean
 if he cut himself off in the middle of a regular
 word, like laugh, like stopping between the g
 and the h, that's what i mean, (of course, assuming
 that that words cupcake and laugh were even 
 used in this speech, assuming that the speech took
 place, assuming that this entire event took place)

 but it would be funny if when god gave
 moses the ten commandments if he stopped
 in the middle of a word of his big speech
 (like between the g and the h in laugh) and
 jus
            FLIPPED MOSES THE BIRD!
                                              t
 and then carried on like he didn't do anything
 at all.

 and i bet this would be funny because moses's
 face would probably look really surprised.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  #%#%@)
  @'_ _|
 (% o o|)  "shine six/eight & the last musty smells"
  |  > |   by - eerie
  |  - |
  |____|

        "_flammable_"

        "warning: intentional misuse by deliberately concentrating & inhaling
  the contents can be harmful or fatal.  keep out of reach of children.
  material safety data sheet available."

        she heard all of our lies.

        stomach aches; her tears are dripping on the mattress.  she tries to
 wipe it off.  that sticky white liquid should do it, she thinks.

        "don't you dare complain when you start losing plastic body parts: 
 crunched elbows, coaxial shoulders, fingers turning to ashes, ethereal skin,
 blisters & dead cells, all - falling apart, disembodied."

        sleeping brain wakes up from speed feed.  eyes don't want to shut
 down anymore.  "whatever you say," screams the poet as his face turns into a
 screech, "i know it's gonna be empty.  i saw the rest of you & figured you
 deserved to keep your fucking blind fug-stinking mind shut, so at least you
 can stop being harmful."

        futile terror - they might try & praise some shy god - morphing into
 that piece of clay you can play with endlessly.  everything you are now has
 been stolen from someone who's now dead buried & long forgotten - everyone's
 gonna be forgotten sooner or later, accepted as liars.  high pitch sound is
 no cure anymore.

        i feel like i'd put this all in caps; but what purpose will it 
 serve?  too much gratuitous purity hurts - we need the truth to be hidden.

        "get some more into a blood drip."

        try & stay away from saturation.

        when you're into it, you can't describe it.

        "tomorrow might just as well be an illusion.  & what about yesterday?
 this moment cannot be eternal.  every zillionth of second we spend alive we
 do nothing but _losing_ & _dying_."

        can't remove those nails in my cranium - they're settled way too
 deep - & have no more head.

        i can't reach anything, yet this is going too fast.

        someone once told me that the lack of scruples from a robber comes
 from the fact that he's been robbed before.  then, who was the first one to
 steal?  & most of all, why in hell did he?

        never had any problem with that.  maybe, unconsciously there's
 something i used to have that someone took without asking.

        i shivered hard; there was nothing better to do that day.

        bridge was always very busy.  visceral bridge was even busier.  ten
 seconds of wait, pressurizing, carved phallic plague.  needful atrocities.
 ten thousand square miles of dead skin.

        the psychotropic ships leave the harbour for sub-mediterranean
 dimensions.  respite, unrespected like the rest, but as we put it around
 here, who cares.  hard solitude.  failed metamorphosis.  mustard-plaster
 waste.  remains of plastic residues padlocked in their oblivion.  cheap
 nyquil fucker.  all pretentious can only be archaic & definitely
 extinguished as lamp-posts of faded innocence.

        pathetic matrix.

        nothing's in the freezer but candy shrapnels.  i'm eating them for
 there's nothing else to eat, plus: there's no other place to stay.
 everything else died.  i hope my soul can freeze & live eternally until
 something comes & wakes me up.

        "bastard!"

        like this.

        "what the fuck are ya' doin' here?"

        "i wish i could be like you."

        "shut up, dicksucker!"

        slap!

        "i don't care if you come here & fuck around.  but why d'you have to
 steal our fucking stuff all the time?  yer lucky t'be a kid, 'cuz i'd have
 shot yer baby face down 'fore you could even say a moth'fuckin' word."

        alright, better act like a kid then.

        "i need the stuff, ian ..  i really d - "

        "get it somewhere else, kid, we're not santa claus."

        "i don't believe in santa anymore, man."

        "could've figured that out."

        he sits down on a chair, less annoyed.  like he understands.  like
 there's no difference between a junkie & a child.

        "no money, no candy, kid."

        like a sentence would fix everything.

        "why, thank you.  now that really does help."

        he sighs.  his lack of aggressiveness is no surprise.  he seems to be
 unwillingly kind to a certain category of people, namely little boys.  sucks
 when you're a bodyguard.  so like he wants to get rid of me, he gives me
 some stuff.  then he goes away - weakness kills.  i go away too & sell it
 all to some stupid junkie i barely know.  like, "hey man, i guess you'd want
 some?"

        started to rain; ran home; streets emptied themselves in minutes.

        rained for three days.

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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
   ______
   | _ _|
  (  o o|)  "asking for it"
   |  > |   by - black francis
   |  o |
   |____|

 [black francis (to kurgan@48)]: HAHAHA.  COLLECTIVE SOUL!@?
 [black francis (to snapper@613)]: oh dear.
 [black francis (to ferrari@549)]: boy, you're dumb.
 [black francis (to monster@564)]: ARGH HOLY FUCK IT'S A MONSTER.
 [black francis (to wonder woman@244)]: ARE YOU REALLY WONDER WOMAN???
 [black francis (to wonder woman@244)]: YOU CAN LASSO ME ANYTIME, BABY.
 [black francis (to sawdust@138)]: ARE YOU REALLY SAWDUST???
 [black francis (to teapot@564)]: ARE YOU REALLY SHORT AND STOUT???
 [black francis (to wild@225)]: holy crap, you're wacky.
 [black francis (to ren@38)]: WHERE IS STIMPY?  HAHA.  GET IT???
 [black francis (to nuts@42)]: to you.
 [black francis (to nuts@42)]: are you in any way wacky?
 [black francis (to pervert pirate@262)]: gives a whole new meaning to the
        term "booty", i guess.
 [black francis (to g710@64)]: what the hell is wrong with you?
 [black francis (to mr pink@244)]: "but i don't want to be mr. pink."
 [black francis (to lolli-pop@244)]: "can i lick you?"
 [black francis (to water babee@549)]: HOLY CRAP.  YOU SPELLED BABY WRONG.
 [black francis (to doornob@225)]: HOLY CRAP.  YOU SPELLED DOOR KNOB WRONG.
 [black francis (to short dog@601)]: ARE YOU REALLY SHORT???
 [black francis (to death@244)]: that's an original one.
 [black francis (to wacco@2)]: AS IN WACO, TEXAS???
 [black francis (to yacco@2)]: ARE YOU AND WACCO FRIENDS?
 [black francis (to hurricanes@221)]: i have nothing amusing to say in
        reference to your handle.
 [black francis (to mike mayo@208)]: YOU WANT SOME KETCHUP WITH THAT???
        HUH, ASSHOLE???
 [black francis (to cracker jack@33)]: WHERE'S MY FREE PRIZE, JERK OFF?!??
 [black francis (to pseudepigrapha@33)]: uh.
 [black francis (to senator sinister@33)]: ARE YOU RUNNING AGAINST MAYOR
        PISSED-OFF NEXT YEAR?
 [black francis (to black@614)]: i really really hate you.
 [black francis (to black@614)]: I HOPE YOU DIE SOON.
 [black francis (to black@614)]: STUPID BASTARD.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 
   _________
  | whoops  |
  |  is     |
  |   behind|  "nowhere to go but up?  who says we're moving?"
  | this    |  by - whoops
  |    wall.|
  |_________|

        you hear it whispered in dark rooms, shadowy figures in corners
 making vague gestures, all so confusing.  it's sung from hilltops in bad
 remakes of even worse originals.  idiots who won't let go of a decade from
 long ago sing about it and paint it on their multicolored shirts.  high
 school students pretend they understand it, college freaks think the high
 school freaks were all wrong and only they really know about it, everyone
 else just laughs at the childish attempts of the youngins and prides
 themself on their vast amount of experience with it.  what is it?

        it's this .. love crap.  we spend most of our young life chasing
 after it in its various forms - give me love, give me rock and roll, give me
 sex and affection.  we want caring, affection, tenderness, fucking, sex,
 love .. what do we really want?  do we really know?  does it really matter?

        probably, some day, as we're walking out in traffic and see a large
 bus heading our way.  perhaps then, the notion will suddenly announce its
 position in our head, and we will shout out "i get it, it's .. !" only to be
 crushed by the bus and photographed in our last moment of triumph by the
 japanese tourists on it.  maybe when we're 80, lying in a bed, looking at
 our family staring down at us as we breathe our last breath, we try to get
 out "i understand .. " but all they can say is "grandma's having a
 conniption fit" and look away to avoid the grotesqueness of it all.

        l for the lampreys who swim around in circles and hiss threateningly
                at us on our trip to seaworld when we never really got along
                with each other anyway, 

        o for the orangutans who scratch themselves as we take pictures of
                them on our honeymoon together after having been locked in a
                hotel room with you for 24 hours when the power went out and
                we couldn't get down from the 42nd floor, 

        v for the vampires who bite each others necks as we carefully avoid
                touching each other in the smelly theatre where your feet
                stick to the popcorn-and-cum infested floor,

        e for everything else.

        fuck it all, you know.  it doesn't matter anyway.

        we pursue it, sometimes we find it, sometimes we hold on to it,
 sometimes we screw it up, and usually we lose it because we're
 motherfuckers.  but we're always looking for it; conscious of it or not,
 we're always looking around, trying to find it in its various forms, and if
 we can't get it maybe for a while we'll settle for one or two of its
 substitutes - sex, affection, care, vodka, or fingerbanging mother theresa.

        so we find it, by accident. we tripped while walking along on the
 street and love stared us in the face.  now, we're scared.  what the hell?
 somebody loves me?  i love somebody?  that means i have to like, think about
 someone besides myself for a change.

        in the other 'incarnations' of love, we still can be the selfish
 beings that humans inherently are.  sex is pure self-pleasure, of course.
 caring for someone?  they care for us back.  they give us warez.  pure self
 service.  being affectionate?  maybe we'll get sex.  then that pleasure.
 yay.

        but love comes along and opens a big can of whoop-ass on us.  we get
 scared.  would you believe .. honest to god, it's not easy!  we may have
 stepped in it by accident, but fuckitall if we're not stuck in it now.  love
 is pressure - pressure to communicate, pressure to be there for someone
 whenever they need them.  pressure to be a bad weather friend.  "if love
 isn't forever, it's not the weather .. "  love is tough shit, guys.  it can
 hurt.  makes you bleed.  also makes you laugh.  stick with it, though - in
 the end, it's all that really matters to anyone.

        oh, gross!  how disgustingly hedonistic and un-angsty.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
    _____
   ///\\\\
   | O.O |   "realize"
   | ^__^|   by - shadow tao
  __\   /__

        the little room that connected the gym with the locker room was dark
 and old.  the brown fibreboard doors between the cache of various balls and
 the walkway were chipping and peeling.  the lock on the doors was old and
 rusty.  the face kind of ground against a hidden force when you spun it.
 there, near a decrepit old pay phone, lurked a large boy, standing a good
 half-foot taller than children his age.  there, near the relative shadow of
 the doors, he waited for his friends.

        nathan chigilack had challenged one of the stronger boys in the
 class, and as a result, was going to get hurt.  he wanted to be there for
 the fight, but he couldn't go without greg or mark.  he glanced down at the
 edge of the dirty rug near the door.  the grey chalk of the school driveway
 was covering it, draping across it like a sooty paint.  out of reaction, he
 inhaled, breathing in the dusty odor of the passageway.  it smelled like an
 old closet.  or a rock quarry.

        dirty and overused.

        he heard some kids voices, and his ears pricked up.  his eyes scanned
 the gym wall, finding third graders on their way to lunch.

        back to looking at the carpet.

        just as his eyes fell to the dark red rug, mark ran around the
 corner, and into the hallway.

        "greg's coming, he had to read something for mrs. berken."

        "really? eh.  berk caught him with that cheese in his desk, i guess."

        " .. "

        "it makes a good eraser."

        "if you keep it in your desk long enough."

        "but it's really greasy.  your paper gets all messy."

        "well, it bounces, it's hard.  you know.  you can throw it at girls,
 or berk, or whatever."

        "i had some .. "

        greg rounded the corner in his compact, stomping stride.

        "berk caught your cheese stash, huh?"

        "yeah.  she said if i wasn't going to eat it, i should give it back
 to the snack lady."

        "well, that snack lady ain't gonna pass out much cheese from now on.
 i've got at _least_ 10 pieces in my box."

        "yeah.  let's hurry, jim.  i bet carl's already started picking on
 nathan, and i don't want to miss *this*."

        the group burst through the door, running through the school parking
 lot, onto the playground.  the three boys, running in a staggered 'v', cut
 through a pack of girls and the special ed's on their way.  the road was
 relatively clear, and the park playground was already starting to get
 crowded.  mark, being the dominant of the three, headed for the giant wooden
 rope gym.  greg followed him, grabbing hold of one of the rough, fibrous red
 ropes that were tied all around it.  as greg swung up towards the
 playground-ward edge, where mark was, jim slowly made his way behind his
 friends, being a little cautious, due to his size.  the pre-fight had
 already begun.

        "what the fuck do you think you are?"

        "i think i'm better than a dumb bully who wants to push me around."

        nathan was trying his best to stand up to carl.

        "dumb bully, huh?"

        <shove>

        "stop it or i'll tell."

        nathan's front had cracked.  carl looked around, slowly, his eyes
 meeting each member of his own group.

        "tell who?  mr.grant?  hahahaha!"  carl wasn't wasting time.

        the crowd laughed quietly.  everyone knew what was next.

        "mr. grant can't even hear his car horn, so he *ain't* gonna hear you
 scream."
        
        nathan was doomed.

         the crowd inched closer, waiting for the last words to be said.
 violence was in the air.  it hung in the air like an electric charge,
 keeping everyone away, but energizing the crowd with a bloodthirsty energy.

        "shut the fuck up, you stupid spic."

        unexpected.

        the silence blasted through everyone like a shockwave.
                the knowledge of what would happen next
                caromed from mind to little mind.  this
                was going to be a show.  a fight to remember.

        of all the things to say, that was not the one thing carl needed to
 hear, especially given his current state.

        carl was the strongest boy in the class.  he was part-hispanic and
 had visible muscles where the rest of them had none.  he was also filled
 with enough rage and hate at so many things that who he was beating up
 didn't really matter to him. just how much they screamed.  he liked causing
 suffering.  he had so much to give.

        nathan was *just* about to find that out.

        carl jabbed to the left as a feign to throw nathan off guard, and it
 worked.  nathan turned to his left to block the feign from carl, only to
 open himself up to a massive right hook, square in the face.  nathan
 staggered backwards across the cement, falling in a small pool of his own
 blood and amazement.  nathan, his nose broken and spraying, began to cry and
 flinch at carl's advance across the cement ..

        mr. grant seemed so far away.  the sun stared down at them.

        carl picked nathan's negligible weight up by the back of his shirt
 and shoved him at the water fountain.  nathan stumbled and fell, landing
 only feet away.  carl was angry and charged with the malice of victory, but
 that only encouraged the crowd.  nathan was bawling with fear, crying out in
 hopes of someone helping him.  his eyes looked so pleading.  god knows with
 what emotion they met in the other kids.  the children were like a stone
 wall.

        "you wanna wash that blood off, you fuckin' turd?"

        " .. " nathan sobbed as he held his nose.  the dripping red onto his
 shirt had grown to cover his chest.

        "huh?"

        the crowd visibly leaned forward to see the victor.

        carl picked nathan up by the back of his head, palming it like a
 ball.  his hands were tensed and grasping, nathan's hair jutted out from
 every fingerhold.  carl had turned his side to nathan, as nathan was lunging
 out in fear at carl, hoping to wound him for just one moment.  nathan's fear
 was incredible; he kicked and punched, wanting so desperately to run away.
 carl had won, though.  nothing nathan could do to stop that _now_.

        carl scanned his eyes across the crowd, challenging his enemies with
 his dominance; building his own confidence by meeting his own packs hungry
 eyes.  he had asserted himself as the lead dog of the class, and it was
 acknowledged by this, and this alone.  nathan's cacophonous screaming had
 pitched into madly desperate pleas for mercy.  he had to beg.  he had to
 plead for mercy.

        but you can't ask for something that just isn't there.
                
        with a mighty sweep, carl brought nathan's mouth down on the rim of
 the fountain.  a sickening crunch of teeth and bone and gum rang out.  blood
 poured down onto the cement, spilling everywhere around the two, like a fat,
 crimson spider.  carl let go of nathan's head, as nathan began to scream
 like no sound ever heard by those children's ears.  his mouth awash in huge
 red gushes of blood, nathan's body curled up into a little ball.  his legs
 jerking and twisting, nathan had been reduced to a spasming, harmless,
 wailing nothing.

        that wasn't enough. not *nearly*.

        the other boys, wanting to show allegiance, swarmed down off the
 jungle of the playground, like wolves waiting for the prey to fall.
 snarling punches and kicks rained down on chigilack from every direction,
 but help was on it's way.  all jim could do was stare.

        mr. grant had heard the scream.

        with his loping gait, mr. grant rounded the edge of the park's tennis
 courts to see what had happened to chigilack.  the boys, so eager on making
 status for themselves, scattered like roaches.  the remainder of the
 children, perched in the playground equipment, began to run.  scattering
 every which way, they looked for a place to hide; a place to prevent them
 from being blamed.

        the hawks of war had scattered, and all that was left was the 
 twitching body of the loser.

                        and him.

        the wolves had become roaches.
        and the war-hawks; scattered crows.

        his mind hadn't responded when he saw the teacher round the corner.
 as fearsome as mr. grant's anger was, all he could do was stare at the
 broken nathan.

        there had been so many fights that year.  so much fear.
        jim didn't really know why, but the felt like the victim.
        someone had stolen something away from him, and there
        wasn't a thing he could do about it.  he felt violated
        and alone, even if didn't know what those things were.

        all you could do was try to survive.
               and all you could do is hope.

                              broken nathan.

                       broken and screaming.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 "the original evil sugar - condiments; chapter 1000"
 by - murmur [with random lines from mogel & jamesy & kojak]

        he refuses to admit "yeah i did it but i stopped."  contorted lad!
 didn't he smell the fire?  mmmm, pecans.  how many unruly rebels were going
 to be abused before they found that giddy enjoyment in their lint: the
 fruitcake supreme chisel.  hoe on the right, spade on the left, no wonder
 the tomatoes stagnate, you filthy cur.  the pathological pedophile from
 dixon testified before the jury of graph-ooooo-maniacs!  only to be
 sentenced to shrubbery.  so DROP YOUR TROUSERS, FLAUBERT!  expose the filthy
 and wholesome goodnesslessness.  john would go on to play superior obfuscate
 on dimple, and move directly to his transfer phase.  shazam!  he put two
 blood down on koko, one on smudge the ignored, and one on igo the hungry,
 all the while acquiring an igloo for his travels.  john, you see, john was
 down in it.  eating his vegetarian sausage, john would spit repeatedly into
 the clam dip.  of course, sam, this particular clam, was too much of a dip
 to do or say too much about it, and hell, he was a fucking clam, so it's not
 like he could have said anything, and he was dead, so it PROBABLY DIDN'T
 MATTER A WHOLE HELL OF A LOT, YOU MISERABLE STREET URCHINS.  "who am i, and
 why am i here, and free marbles?" he shouted, unconvincingly, erstwhile
 covered in vomit.  it was all a dream, then he creamed, and was bought out
 by some larger corporation.  the split pea soup enveloped it better than
 ezra in its own lovely green moistness, a lovely green moistness that too
 enveloped the theologians with love, and great sexual thoughts, although
 it's hard to say whether they were icelandic radishes, or jim's.  so fuck
 all that, we've gotta get on with these, sam.  sam?  SAM$#?!?#  take this
 love handle and shove it deep, until it strikes oil, then sell it to texaco.

        moral: hold my hand, let her cry, i only wanna be with you.

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

  __/\__
  \ Oo /  "mistaken"
  /_/\_\  by - girlie17

 HE WAS HOT
 MAYBE NOT
 ON SECOND THOUGHT ..
 BUT I WAS CAUGHT
 WHAT'S DONE IS DONE
 IT WAS FUN
 JUST ANOTHER PUN -
 I WAS SCREWED
 EVENTS MISCONSTRUED
 HE SAID THIS
 I SAID THAT
 I WAS BLAZED
 CONFUSED & DAZED
 QUESTIONS RAISED?
 SHORT REPLY
 I WONDERED WHY
 REGRET WAS HIGH
 THAT NIGHT GONE BY!

                                     ____
                                  ___|  |_ _
                               ___|  |  _______
                               |     |  |     | 
                               |  |  |  |  |  | 
 ----------------------------- |  |  |  |  |  | -----------------------------
 ----------------------------- |  |  |  |  |  | -----------------------------
                               |  |  |  |  |  |
                               |  |  |  |  |  |                    
                               |_____|  |_____|
                                     |___ _

     please direct all dto correspondence towards - doomed@voicenet.com
  call that stupid place - doomed to obscurity's bbs system - 215-985-0462
        the dto world wide waste homepage - http://wwti.iway.net/dto
   to get on the dto mailing list - send mail to doomed@voicenet.com with
               the body of the message saying "subscribe dto".

  (c) copyright 1996 doomed to obscurity productions - all rights reserved.

       "better living through sheer idiocy & a whole lot of free time."

 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------