From: "glassdog.MEMO" Subject: Memo: 12.Apr.01 - GD5 To: memo@glassdog.com Dispatch from glassdog(R) world domination: Take Five by Lance Arthur Five years ago today, a personal Web site stuck its head up out of the dark, moist, fertile soil of the World Wide Web. With no grand schemes, no dreams, no plans and no real goals, glassdog.com was a precursor to the next five years of pointless, stupid, annoying wastes of time with bad interfaces, incredibly pedantic navel-gazing and one stupid idea after another. But they're all out of business. We never had a profit model to begin with. I use the Royal We when I refer to glassdog because I'm a big, fat egotist with delusions that somewhere out there, someone actually believes that glassdog has some sort of honest to goodness purpose for existing. As if it were like every other fly-by-night Web site that's attempting to garner favor and make you pay attention and visit, God damn you, visit and visit again. I occasionally receive resumes from people who want to work at World Domination Headquarters (and, no, I don't answer their email either) and have had RFPs come in to the site even though nowhere is there any indication that glassdog, the company, does anything. Maybe that illustrates something about the nature of the Web. Maybe not. Either way, it amuses me and that, dear friends and fanatical followers, was the point all along. No, this is not a goodbye, even though the tone may suggest it. Rather, it is a rejuvenation and call to arms. It is a remembrance of things past and a look ahead to what may come. It is a manilla envelope, the kind with those brass flanges that are so much fun to play with, sealed with a kiss and stuffed full of dreams. Having spent the last several weeks digging down through the mulch heap of much of the site, I have discovered that I am an idiot. To many of you, this comes as no surprise. Even I would, from time to time, declare my own supreme idiocy to make sure no one else did it first. I pulled back from what I wanted to do because if it failed miserably, I could always feel comforted by the fact that I didn't really care all that much about it. Even though, secretly and deep inside the dark corners of my much-maligned soul, I wanted to be great. I wanted everything to shine and be the best thing I could ever make. I wanted to erect majestic diamond-clad fantasies in sight and sound. I wanted to be spellbinding and erudite, to be beautiful and charming and invite everyone over to my place for Bloody Marys on the veranda and milk chocolate truffles under the covers. What I wanted was to be special, to be amazing... To be great. That's a lot to ask of a Web site. And that's what I ask of you. I know a lot (most? all?) of you are creating your own things out there, now. The Web has changed in one important aspect above all, in a way that opens the bud of its flower to full bloom. The barrier to entry is very low, so low that literally anyone can join. So what I'm going to ask of you is something so easy and simple and frightening and horrible that you can't resist. You won't. I want you to be great. Why aren't you great yet? What are you waiting for? Are you waiting for five years -- five fucking years -- to try? Are you waiting because you think it isn't inside you, the will to be great, the ability, the drive, the need of it? I want you to be great tomorrow! Now! This second! But here's the catch: To be great, you have to give it all away. You have to give it to me and to everyone else and not ever, ever, ever expect anything back. You have to give it all, all you have, all of it. Make something. Be something. Start something. Share something. Be with other great people and be great together. Dream great dreams and make them real. If you have an idea, you have the start. If you don't have the talent, go find it. Find the designer. Find the animator. Find the coder. Find the musician. And make something for me. Use the Web again. Use it all, every last drop of it. Spread your paint to the very edges and let it drip off the canvas. Sing as loud and as long and as high as you can. Break things. Throw things. Make things grow. Rant. Scream. Love. Kiss. Good God, don't you realize what you have? Can't you see it sitting right there in front of you? It's everything! It's amazing and colossal and yours for the taking! There are no rules. There are no laws. There's no one here you have to listen to or answer to or pay attention to. This is the time you've been waiting for. Now. It's here. Be great, God damn you! Go fucking be great! Five years is a very long time... Thank you all very, very much, Lance [OUT] Feel Free To Forward glassdog.MEMO: another fine Web Product via glassdog(R) world domination Licking the gravy train clean since 1996! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ TO UNSUBSCRIBE: Send an email from the same email name and account you originally subscribed under and mailto:majordomo@glassdog.com In the message body, type "unsubscribe memo" (without the quotations). If you cannot recall what email address you originally subscribed under, or your mail is being forwarded to a secondary account and you cannot unsubscribe, or you experience other problems with this process or any other aspects of this subscription or the mailing list in general, please mailto:memo-help@glassdog.com with your particular circumstances so we can help you resolve the difficulties. For more nonsense, visit http://www.glassdog.com/ on the Web: Pointlessness, obfuscation and insulting behavior. Because we can. (C)2001 glassdog world domination and Lance Arthur