Okay, after some work, I think I've finally knocked down some of the tough coding needed to open the site up to a greater audience. In a few minutes I'll be sending out an e-mail to a few people located on the nicknames page who I think could help contribute an article or two to the overall site. And so I present point release 1.5 of the 'werkz web site. Most may not see a difference, but trust me, the changes in back are akin to suddenly placing advertising on the main page. (Something I will never do...)

The reason for the alteration?

Well, to put it simply, I think the site could use a few more viewpoints than just mine. Brad and Helena occasionally chip in, but the bulk is still done by me. Needless to say, it would be nice to see some more content on the site covering a wider range of topics. The best part of being an American is being able to rebel against the easily idiotic notion that purity is preferable. We are a nation of mongrels, of mixed blood heritage, of blue eyes and black hair and brown skin and red noses who pay to lose their identity. In that context, having a larger number of voices voice in is a good thing.

While I'm at it, the new staff page is nowhere near complete. Now that I've added in plenty of backend goodness, I'll be working on updating that section to reflect the people who get the golden tickets more properly. And I still want to throw in comments on the articles, but only for registered users...but in order to do that, I had to allow other users to be created, hence the order.

It all makes sense, in an edward sort of way.

To answer your two next questions: no, I don't know when I will invite you onboard. And no, I don't know when the new features/look will be finished. The trip is the fun part, remember?

I love the Metro. This is one reason why. Look, we have a zero-tolerance policy. If the cop had nailed her before she entered the turnstiles, I would've said he went too far. But she ignored his warning, and walked through the turnstiles. I saw some well-dressed guy a week or two ago on a station platform with an open bottle of soda. I thought about raising a fuss but then realized that the next metro employee or officer would get him without my help. And I realized further that any transit system which takes its roles seriously is a good one.

This isn't to say that the laundry list of bad ideas (two-car trains, the lack of smartrip cards) in the final paragraph is invalid. Metro has and does continue to make mistakes. But most mistakes of that nature stem from a lack of resources. Unlike other transit systems, Metro can't get any money from the local government to subsidize operating expenses. So it has to raise fees and cut corners to do what is needed. The cleanest run system in the country can only hang its hat on order and discipline, not on extravagance. And that's says a great deal about the hard-working men and women who keep Metro running.

Last night I hopped on the Link and used my SmarTrip card. Saved me $.25 total. But the experience was priceless. I may have to start riding other buses if they all (as others have told me) take SmarTrip. Welcome to the future, WMATA style. It's may be crowded, but it is very bright.

I finished the incredibly large project...so I'm now free to actually make up all the work that I missed over the past week. I'll try to start posting some more here as well, but I can't do that until I finish the coding changes which will, in all likelihood, have a huge effect on the site itself. Which is why this entry is going into the brand spanking new "coding" subsection of the "news" section...

A long day at work. Doing some coding right now...

Brad and Helena...you can't log back in to the admin side yet...still working out some bugs.

The new features should be cool, but it could take up to a week for me to get them working. Combined with the fact that my work (during the day) is super-busy...well, let's just say posting will be light this week.

Part 3 of the cult experience, as well as the regular weekend update, as well as the new coding, as well as everything else in my life, is on hold until I finish a big proposal for work. It's a big proposal.

So I arrive at this almost-deserted officepark with Jill a few minutes late, and notice everyone walking into the building wearing suits and nice dresses. I immediately give my best accusatory glance to Jill, who had informed me that going home and changing into shorts was fine. A few huffs later, we parked and walked towards the entrance.

A few nicely dressed greeters handed us promotion materials and promptly shooed us inside to a large room containing a couple hundred people and a large stage. On the stage were two Landmark hosts, with the audience composed mostly of guests, with a small number of people scattered throughout who had participated in the forum. We sat down near the very rear, being late, and listened as the two hosts began their spiel.

From the opening moment, it sounded like your standard self-help-motivational-speaking gig. The hosts were loud and used generalities. The materials we were handed described a typical Landmark forum weekend. No cultish stuff there. It seemed fairly standard. Later, participants got up to speak about their experience. All were enthusiastic about the process, but they didn't seem brainwashed, or really that polished. Most just droned on a bit and hemmed and hawed. The only halfway interesting comment came from one participant who said his "breakthrough" occurred when someone "had their shirt thrown away" during the process. Said person then hastily added, "I guess I shouldn't have mentioned that" and kept talking. Not much to go on.

Several boring minutes later, they asked everyone to talk to the person who had invited them. After a brief (two minutes) conversation, they then told everyone to sign up for the forum. Jill and I declined.

Must run to party now...will update in part 3 in a minute.