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        It's Oscar night, and while I don't usually get all enthused about it, I happened to click over to it and found it interesting for a change.  For one, thing, Billy Crystal was funny.  Oh god was he funny.  I don't remember anybody being all that funny at the Oscars, but then again, it's been a loooong time since I last watched.
        Something else I noticed was that most of the presenters looked like they were actually there, ya know?  Not bored or bewildered or stoned or anything.  Present, mind and body.  I singularly remember that alertness being absent on previous award nights.
        The personal touch made a lot of difference.  The backstage shots and the constantly updated web site, and the fact that they say, "The Oscar goes to..." instead of, "The winner is..."
        I just wish the website had listed a schedule.  I heard on the radio news the other day that Robin Williams was supposed to sing "Blame Canada" and I wanted to know when, or whether it got canceled from the program.
     
        The Oscars are not what excited me, though.  What got me revved was the Cluetrain Manifesto.  This made so much sense, and it rang with familiarity as well as common sense, and I soon realized why:  it goes hand in hand with !!!srini's Fuck Work Manifesto.  I don't buy !!!srini's whole catalog of epithets and directives, but I see some things of real value here and there in his stuff.  For instance, on the Propaganda page, I really only use four of his signs:  Blasphemy, Don't Forget, Immortal, and Soul Belly.  These are the ones that seem to me to empower rather than dismay.
        Anyway, what !!!srini rants about is the dehumanizing of the US workforce, and how this crime is eating up our country one soul at a time.  I wonder if he'd be more optimistic reading Cluetrain, because it now seems that the individuals are rising against the corporate monolith both from within and without, and I think there is a bigass party when that wall comes down.