Suggestion - MODERATOR

As The King once said: "Understanding solves all problems baby, that a-why I'm a-tellin' you...." If you go to the home page of this forum you will see the link "Forum Leaders" that will list all the administrators and moderators. You can contact them from there. (You have to be "registered" and logged in to send one of them a message.) As for: Why do people hijack threads? Good question. My best guess is that it is to fill a void of some kind. Though in the hectic hustle and bustle of our "modern" life it is hard to imagine that most folks have time to fritter away. Perhaps it is a desire to be noticed in our increasingly anonymous world. "Look at me, look at me, look at me." With just the push of a button you can broadcast your "self" (?) to the world. But with so many others doing the same thing, who will notice? As I said before, the Internet can present some interesting social studies (current company included). Too often I find myself mulling over this quote by Don Juan from Carlos Castaneda's "Journey to Ixtlan": "Self-importance is our greatest enemy. Think about it - what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men (and women). Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone." Oh, well.... Then there is always: "Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time." - T. S. Elliot Sometimes I find it hysterical that computers are heralded as time saving devices. I've spent way more time than I'd like to admit rebuilding/repairing/upgrading computers. Doing software and hardware installations and updates, reading help documentation, just trying to figure out how the thing works (so I can supposedly save time). And that does not even include time on the job or the Internet. Crikey, with the Internet you are additionally under constant attack from malware created by a whole army of nefarious people who REALLY must have nothing better to do. And then there is all the commercial sludge. Not to mention chat rooms, message boards, and web sites. Most times (these days anyway) I'd rather go to the pool, or read a good book. Computers NEVER make mistakes, only the people who design and build them do. Computers are dumb as a box of rocks and only do exactly what they are told. Maybe my mistake is logging onto this forum. But the good news is that I have a choice about what I do and how I react to others. (There, did I hijack this thread enough to adequately show off my soapbox and get noticed?) :-p So the next time you are looking to waste time with your computer, but decide you want something different, here is some suggested reading: "The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage" by Clifford Stoll "The Hacker Crackdown: Law And Disorder On The Electronic Frontier" by Bruce Sterling "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy "Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds - And How It Promises to Transform Society" by Howard Rheingold Um, yeah, right. What does all this have to do with swimming? I mean this IS supposed to be a swimming related forum right? Well, I suppose you could use your computer to process information about swimming. Since you use the Internet and are on this forum you could spend a little more TIME COMMUNICATING your SELF-IMPORTANCE with a new post or thread here. Or you can search the web, or the archives here, for seemingly endless opportunities to waste yet more time. I just hope you enjoy it, so it won't be entirely wasted time. Or you could just go to the pool, or read a book. :">

As The King once said: "Understanding solves all problems baby, that a-why I'm a-tellin' you...." If you go to the home page of this forum you will see the link "Forum Leaders" that will list all the administrators and moderators. You can contact them from there. (You have to be "registered" and logged in to send one of them a message.) As for: Why do people hijack threads? Good question. My best guess is that it is to fill a void of some kind. Though in the hectic hustle and bustle of our "modern" life it is hard to imagine that most folks have time to fritter away. Perhaps it is a desire to be noticed in our increasingly anonymous world. "Look at me, look at me, look at me." With just the push of a button you can broadcast your "self" (?) to the world. But with so many others doing the same thing, who will notice? As I said before, the Internet can present some interesting social studies (current company included). Too often I find myself mulling over this quote by Don Juan from Carlos Castaneda's "Journey to Ixtlan": "Self-importance is our greatest enemy. Think about it - what weakens us is feeling offended by the deeds and misdeeds of our fellow men (and women). Our self-importance requires that we spend most of our lives offended by someone." Oh, well.... Then there is always: "Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time." - T. S. Elliot Sometimes I find it hysterical that computers are heralded as time saving devices. I've spent way more time than I'd like to admit rebuilding/repairing/upgrading computers. Doing software and hardware installations and updates, reading help documentation, just trying to figure out how the thing works (so I can supposedly save time). And that does not even include time on the job or the Internet. Crikey, with the Internet you are additionally under constant attack from malware created by a whole army of nefarious people who REALLY must have nothing better to do. And then there is all the commercial sludge. Not to mention chat rooms, message boards, and web sites. Most times (these days anyway) I'd rather go to the pool, or read a good book. Computers NEVER make mistakes, only the people who design and build them do. Computers are dumb as a box of rocks and only do exactly what they are told. Maybe my mistake is logging onto this forum. But the good news is that I have a choice about what I do and how I react to others. (There, did I hijack this thread enough to adequately show off my soapbox and get noticed?) :-p So the next time you are looking to waste time with your computer, but decide you want something different, here is some suggested reading: "The Soul of a New Machine" by Tracy Kidder "The Cuckoo's Egg: Tracking a Spy Through the Maze of Computer Espionage" by Clifford Stoll "The Hacker Crackdown: Law And Disorder On The Electronic Frontier" by Bruce Sterling "Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution" by Steven Levy "Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds - And How It Promises to Transform Society" by Howard Rheingold Um, yeah, right. What does all this have to do with swimming? I mean this IS supposed to be a swimming related forum right? Well, I suppose you could use your computer to process information about swimming. Since you use the Internet and are on this forum you could spend a little more TIME COMMUNICATING your SELF-IMPORTANCE with a new post or thread here. Or you can search the web, or the archives here, for seemingly endless opportunities to waste yet more time. I just hope you enjoy it, so it won't be entirely wasted time. Or you could just go to the pool, or read a book. :">