Mike Browne’s Blog

[imported post from my old blog at moosh.org]

Look at these posts from Xinoehpoel (possibly a hoax) that were posted in the newsgroup called alt.prophecies.nostradamus. This is truly eerie, if it’s fact. This person may have had prior knowledge of the attacks and may even have been involved.

[imported post from my old blog at moosh.org]

I feel the need to update the page with a little more information about what happened yesterday. Perhaps, if you live in a hole with no radio, or TV, you have not heard about the terrorist acts udertaken in the US yesterday. By the end of the day 4 planes had crashed (two into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon and one in Pennsylvania), both towers of the WTC in New York had collapsed and perhaps thousands lay dead and dying in the wreckage. People are very afraid (myself included) in the aftermath of this horror. Our lives are going to change form this point on. It’s very sad.

Riding the bus yesterday afternoon was an odd experience; a somber atmosphere. Very tense.

People are pulling together sending blood, aid and prayers to NYC, Washington and PA. I’m including the picture I am as a memorial. Lots of us have seen the horribly graphic pictures of planes crashing and the aftermath. I thought it appropriate to remember a happier time. For more information, probably the best places to go are CNN, MSNBC. If you are a spiritual person, I’m sure you wouldn’t mind sending some prayers to the victims and families of this tragedy. If you can’t do that, perhaps, think of something that you can do. Find out how you can help by going to the Helping.org site.

[imported post from my old blog at moosh.org]

What a terrible day. I’ll never forget this one.

[imported post from my old blog at moosh.org]

Bought the first season of the Sopranos on DVD. I watched all 480 minute sof it. Now I’m hooked. The next season comes out on November 6, 2001. Until then I can watch them on TV or get my fix at the website. I want more. But that will have to do for now. Also, check out the Sopranos Mob Name Generator. Mike Browne translates to “Thinks-he’s-so-smart”.

[imported post from my old blog at moosh.org]

FBI’s Most Unusual Deaths
Forked over by Dan Patch

Every year the FBI, is asked to investigate over 36,000 Serious Crimes including Suspicious Deaths and Homicides. Every year the Homicide Investigations Unit puts out its Top 12 Homicides of the year.

1- Alex Mijtus, 36 years old, is killed by his wife, armed with a 20 inch long vibrator. Mrs Mijtus had enough of her husband’s strange sex practices and one night during a prolonged session of fun she snapped, pushing all 20 inches of the vibrator into Alex’s anus until it ruptured several internal organs and caused severe bleeding. OWWWW!!!!

2- Debby Mills-Newbroughton, 99 years old, was killed as she crossed the road. She was to turn 100 the next day, but crossing the road with her daughter to go to her own birthday party her wheel chair was hit by the truck delivering her birthday cake.

3- Peter Stone, 42 years old, is murdered by his 8 year old daughter, who he had just sent to her room with no dinner. Young Samantha Stone felt that if she couldn’t have dinner no one should, and she promptly inserted 72 rat poison tablets into her fathers coffee as he prepared dinner. The victim took one sip and promptly collapsed. Samantha Stone was given a suspended sentence as the judge felt she didn’t realize what she was doing, until she tried to poison her mother using the same method one month later.

4- David Danil, 17 years old, was killed by his girl friend after he attempted to have his way with her. His unwelcome advance was met with a double-barreled shotgun. Charla’s (the girlfriends’) father had given it to her an hour before the date started, just in case.

5- Javier Halos, 27 years old, was killed by his landlord for failing to pay his rent for 8 years. The landlord, Kirk Weston, clubbed the victim to death with a toilet seat after he realized just how long it had been since Mr Halos paid his rent.

6- Megan Fry, 44 years old, is killed by 14 state troopers after she wandered onto a live firing, fake town, simulation. Seeing all the troopers walking slowly down the street Megan Fry had jumped out in front of them and yelled Boo!. The troopers, thinking she was a pop up target, fired 67 shots between them, over 40 of them hitting the target. She just looked like a very real looking target, one of the troopers stated in his report.

7- Julia Smeeth, 20 years old, was killed by her brother Michael because she talked on the phone too long, Michael clubbed his sister to death with a cordless phone, then stabbed her several times with the broken aerial.

8- Helena Simms, Wife to the famous American nuclear scientist Harold Simms was killed by her husband after she had an affair with the neighbor. Over a period of 3 months Harold substituted Helena’s eye shadow with a Uranium composite that was highly radioactive, until she died of radiation poisoning. Although she suffered many symptoms, including total hair loss, welts, blindness, extreme nausea and even had an ear lobe drop off, the victim never attended a doctor’s surgery or hospital for a check up.

9- Military Sergeant John Joe Winter killed his two timing wife by loading her car with Trintynitrate explosive (similar to C4). The Ford Taurus she was driving was filled with 750 kgs of explosive, forming a force twice as powerful as the Oklahoma Bombing. The explosion was heard by several persons some up to 14 kilometers away. No trace of the car or the victim were ever found, only a 55 meter deep crater, and 500m of missing road.

10- Patty Winter, 35 years old, was killed by her neighbor in the early hours of a Sunday morning. Her neighbor, Falt Hame, for years had a mounted F6 phantom jet engine in his rear yard. He would fire the jet engine, aimed at an empty block at the back of his property. Patty Winter would constantly complain to the local sheriff’s officers about the noise and the potential risk of fire. Mr Hame was served with a notice to remove the engine immediately. Not liking this he invited Miss Winter over for a cup of coffee and a chat about the whole situation. What Winter didn’t know was that he had changed the position of the engine, as she walked into the yard he activated it, hitting her with a blast of 5,000 degrees, killing her instantly, and forever burning her outline into the driveway.

11- Michael Lewis, angry at his gay boyfriend, used the movie, Die Hard With a Vengeance as inspiration. He drugged his boyfriend, Tony Berry, into an almost catatonic state, then dressed him only in a double sidedwhite board that read Death to all Niggers! on one side, and God Loves the KKK. On the other. Lewis then drove the victim to downtown Harlem and dropped him off. Two minutes later Berry was deceased.

12- Conrad Middleton, 26 years old, was killed by his twin brother Brian after a disagreement over who should take the family home after their parents’ passed away. Conrad had a nasal problem, and had no sense of smell. After the argument Brian stormed out of the house, then snuck back later, and turned on the 3 gas taps in the house, filling it with gas. He then left out a box of cigars, a lighter and a note saying, Sorry for the spree, have a puff on me, Brian. Conrad promptly lit a cigar,destroying the house, and himself in the process .

[imported post from my old blog at moosh.org]

Backpain! Neckpain! Tingling fingers! Oy gavalt! I went to the Walk-in Clinic here in Maple Ridge yesterday. The reason? I have had a sore back, shooting pain in my right arm and shoulder. This has been going on for about a month now. It started just before our trip to Nova Scotia for Rachel & JL’s wedding and hasn’t gone away yet. I ended up in the ER at the hospital in Bridgewater. The Doc there gave me anti-inflammatories and muscle relaxants, said I had sub-scapular bursitis and told me to get a message. I did as he said, to no avail. Still pain. Lately my hand, forefinger and thumb are going numb.
So, we come to yesterday. The doctor I saw yesterday said, after much bonking, poking, prodding and pulling, that it appears that my 6th cervical disc may be where the problem lies. Off to an X-ray tomorrow, more anti-inflammatories, physiotherapy (i.e. stretching on a more modernized version of the Medieval rack), and another massage. It could be any number of things. The worst of which are arthritis of the neck and a herniated disc which may require surgery. Yikes! Maybe I did it with the cannon.
** See the pic for September 3, 2001 ** I can’t resist showing it to you again.
I, for obvious reasons, have an interest in the spine and it’s workings all of a sudden. These links are helping to learn a bit more:
— Spine Health
— Neck Reference
Wish me luck tomorrow with the X-Rays. Eek!

[imported post from my old blog at moosh.org]

I found a little something that you all should enjoy; especially my wife, Carol. We’ve got a little catch phrase around the house lately. It’s a line from the Silence of the Lambs character, Buffalo Bill, “It rubs the lotion on it’s skin!” If you’ve seen the film it’s quite memorable.

Here’s a great find. It’s the obscure song by the relatively unknown artist Q Lazarrus, called “Goodbye Horses”. It plays during a disturbing, yet somewhat humourous scene in Silence of the Lambs featuring Buffalo Bill, with, um, himself tucked between his legs and dancing in front of his video camera

Enjoy:
Goodbye Horses by Q Lazarrus

[imported post from my old blog at moosh.org]

A new look for Moosh.org. Much sharper and easier to navigate. It even works in Netscape. As this site progresses things should fill up a bit content-wise. For the moment things are as they are. We hope your stay at moosh.org is a pleasant one.

Below is a little pic that Carol took of me on our recent trip to NS. I’m not exactly sure what came over me, but oh well.

I know the above looks dismal for me mentally. I am doing okay! Really! Hey, you know what? There are transmitters in the walls and carrots emit brain eroding rays. Click here to learn how to protect yourself. Here are a few more paranoia related links:
— Disinformation
— The Smoking Gun

[imported post from an older version of mikebrowne.com]

Well today was quite a day. There was an earthquake, magnitude 6.8 South of Seattle. We felt it here in Vancouver too. The building where I work at Kazootek Technologies as a Web Designer shook for about 20-30 seconds. Pretty scary.

Also, today I bought the domain name Bluenozer.com (no longer mine as of this update) to use as a web site dedicated to former Nova Scotians, like myself, who get homesick and those who still live there to have a common place to go in cyberspace. Hopefully we’ll be able to build a home away from down home.

The coolest new of all is about my recent interview on 690 AM CBC Radio here in Vancouver. I got to go into the studio and sat on a panel of people who’s lives have been affected in one way or another by the “dotcom downturn” as part of an ongoing series.

Here’s the audio of the interview:
CBC Interview – Feb 2001

Here’s the article as it appeared on CBC.ca:

Caught in the dotcom downturn

The high tech job market is looking bleak in Vancouver, just ask Susan Pattinson. She’s been looking for a job since November when she was laid off as director of marketing at Saving-U-money.com.

Like many people, Pattinson didn’t want to think the dotcom bubble would burst.

“I could see something coming down the pipeline, but I thought I was immune to it; like everyone else I wanted to keep those blinders on,” she said.

Her background is in Internet publishing and before that she completed a degree in sociology where she studied the impact of technology on society. A year ago, at the peak of the dotcom craze companies were desperate for her marketing experience. Now things are much tougher.

Perspective employers are telling her she doesn’t have enough experience, which she finds a little ironic since “the industry hasn’t been around for that long”. And employers now want people to have a computer science degree and an MBA. “If I had that I probably wouldn’t be here I would probably be in the U.S.”

Mike Browne was also laid off in the fall. He was a web designer at Online Office, which went under like many others. He was lucky though, he found a job at another company after months of hunting. But he’s not sure how long the luck will last. The company laid off 16 people February 20, it’s down to half the size it was a month ago. Still, Browne counts himself lucky, he knows many web designers like himself who haven’t found any work. Some are even on welfare.

These are familiar stories to Steven Brouwer. He’s the branch manager for CNC Global an Information Technology search firm. He says since the market downturn, companies are holding off hiring and if they are looking for new employees there are so many applicants out there they usually find workers on their own.

But Brouwer said he wouldn’t discourage anybody from going into the high tech field.

“If you look at the salary perspective, the salaries are higher in the high tech industry. I think we’re in a glitch. But from the research our company has done we expect the market will pick up by the end of the year.”

And Pattinson has a word of advice for would be job seekers. “I would say be as technical as you possibly can but don’t focus on one position or one vertical market.”