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Thursday, December 23rd, 2004
| Time | Event | ||||
| 1:05a | victim of love On March 8 of 1991 Michael responded to an anonymous advertisement published on the Usenet newsgroup alt.personals as Message-ID 20113@samsung.samsung.com. As he found out later, it had been posted by Erin Zhu. The anonymous author described herself as an 18 year old female who “prefers unconventional just about everything, including clothes and people.” At that time, Michael attended Harvard College. At the same time, Erin Zhu attended Santa Clara University and lived at home with her parents. Over the next three months Erin gradually confided her family troubles to Michael in frequent email exchanges and phone conversations. According to her she was two years younger than stated in her ad, only about to turn seventeen on March 31 of 1991. Erin also informed Michael that she had lived in the United States over five years, arriving from China with her mother in 1985 to join her father Min Zhu, then a graduate student at Stanford since 1983. Erin further informed Michael that three years after her arrival in the United States, in July of 1988, her mother went back to China for eye treatment. According to Erin, while her mother was away, her father Min Zhu came to her bedroom and raped her. Erin added that at the time of her sexual assault by Min Zhu, her brother Lei Zhu, two years her senior, remained in his bedroom next door and heard her struggle and cry out, but did nothing. At the time of this sexual assault, Erin was fourteen years old.  Edvard Munch, Puberty, 1894-1895 Erin further informed Michael that Min Zhu continued to rape her daily for over a month. According to her, Min Zhu ceased raping her only after Labor Day, so as not to interfere with her school studies. Erin also informed Michael that over the following three years Min Zhu continued to subject his family members to frequent brutal beatings. Erin additionally informed Michael that owing to these outbreaks of violence, she had run away from her family home in December of 1989. At that time Erin made a police report complaining about sexual abuse and beatings by Min Zhu. Erin further informed Michael that the police placed her in a foster home in San Mateo for two weeks following her escape from home. According to Erin, her parents then persuaded her to drop her criminal charges against Min Zhu and come back home. As an incentive for her to comply with their request, they pledged to cease their old family ways. However, Min Zhu resumed physical and verbal abuse of his family members shortly thereafter. Michael first met Erin in San Francisco in June of 1991. On the occasion of their meeting, Erin informed Michael that she reported her rape by Min Zhu to her school counselor in Los Altos in early 1991. Erin also informed Michael that owing to the increasingly intolerable nature of abuse visited upon them by Min Zhu, she was conspiring with her mother and her brother to kill Min Zhu and assert the battered family defense. In response, Michael counseled Erin against the use of violence, except in self-defense against clear and present danger. Michael further recommended that Erin leave her family residence as soon as possible for the sake of her safety, sanity, and survival. In July of 1991, Erin moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. Erin reported to Michael that she had been sexually assaulted by her brother Lei Zhu on a trip to San Diego a year earlier. Erin also supplied numerous details of her abuse and intimidation by Min Zhu. Michael advised Erin to limit communication with her family and to make a new life for herself on the East Coast. Michael pledged his personal and financial support to that end. In the Fall of 1992, after visiting her parents in California, Erin complained to Michael about recurring outbreaks of violent abuse perpetrated against her by Min Zhu. In response, Michael once again advised Erin to curtail her relations with her parents. Erin thanked Michael for supporting her in standing up to her parents. Erin also informed Michael that Min Zhu hated him, blaming him for the alienation of her filial affection. Erin additionally informed Michael that her parents resented him as a consequence of their embarrassment by his detailed knowledge of Min Zhu’s rape of his daughter. | ||||
| 1:41a | the original sin “John Cage tells the story somewhere of going to a concert of music composed by a friend of his. The composer had also written the programme notes for the music in which he said, among other things, that he hoped his music might go some way to diminishing the suffering in the world. After the concert his friend asked him what he thought of the event and Cage answered, ‘I loved the music but I hated the programme notes.’ ‘But don’t you think there’s too much suffering in the world?’ the friend asked, obviously put out. ‘No,’ Cage replied, ‘I think there’s just the right amount.’” — Adam Philips, Darwin’s Worms: On Life Stories and Death Stories  Edvard Munch, Scream, 1893 Here, as always, Proust is completely detached from all moral considerations. There is no right and wrong in Proust nor in his world. (Except possibly in those passages dealing with the war, when for a space he ceases to be an artist and raises his voice with the plebs, mob, rabble, canaille.) Tragedy is not concerned with human justice. Tragedy is the statement of an expiation, but not the miserable expiation of a codified breach of a local arrangement, organised by the knaves for the fools. The tragic figure represents the expiation of original sin, of the original and eternal sin of him and all his ‘soci malorum,’ the sin of having been born. ‘Pues el delito mayor Del hombre es haber nacido.’ — Samuel Beckett, Proust In der That ist die Ueberzeugung, daß die Welt, also auch der Mensch, etwas ist, daß eigentlich nicht seyn sollte, geeignet, uns mit Nachsicht gegen einander zu erfüllen: denn was kann man von Wesen unter solchem Prädikament erwarten? — Ja, von diesem Gesichtspunkt aus könnte man auf den Gedanken kommen, daß die eigentlich passende Anrede zwischen Mensch und Mensch, statt, „Monsieur“, „Sir“, u.s.w., seyn möchte „Leidensgefährte, Socî malorum, compagnon de misères, my fellow sufferer.“ So seltsam dies klingen mag; so entspricht es doch der Sache, wirft auf den anderen das richtige Licht und erinnert an das Nötigste: an die Toleranz, Geduld, Schonung und Nächstenliebe, deren jeder bedarf und die daher auch jeder schuldig ist. — Arthur Schopenhauer, „Nachträge zur Lehre vom Leiden der Welt“ In fact, the conviction that the world and man is something that had better not have been, is of a kind to fill us with indulgence towards one another; for what can one expect from being in such predicaments? — Indeed, from this point of view, we might well consider the proper form of address among men to be, not “Monsieur”, “Sir”, and so on, but “Leidensgefährte, Socî malorum, compagnon de misères, my fellow-sufferer”. This may perhaps sound strange, but it is in keeping with the facts; it puts others in a right light; and it reminds us of that, which is after all the most necessary thing in life — the tolerance, patience, regard, and love of neighbor, of which everyone stands in need, and which, therefore, every man owes to his fellow.— Arthur Schopenhauer, “On the Sufferings of the World” | ||||
| 2:25a | lovers and fighters [WebEx ex-President and outgoing CTO Min Zhu] first sexually abused [his daughter Erin] in August 1988. […] Just as [Erin] was about to fall asleep, Min Zhu slipped into bed with [Erin]. Although a brilliant student, [Erin] was naive and innocent about sexual matters. [Erin] had studied biology and was aware of the biological aspects of reproduction, but she was unaware of the "practical" aspects of sexual matters. Min Zhu was wearing shorts and a tank top/t-shirt. [Erin] was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Min Zhu removed [Erin]’s clothes and began to touch her sexually. [Erin] verbally objected to his advances but Min Zhu merely stated that there was nothing wrong with what he was doing. Min Zhu proceeded to remove his clothes and forced [Erin]’s hand to touch him sexually. Min Zhu assured [Erin] that there was nothing wrong with [Erin] touching him in that way and that Min Zhu’s state of erection was normal. Min Zhu proceeded to turn on the lights, stating that he wanted to see [Erin] naked because he had never seen a virgin naked, since her mother was not a virgin when they were married. [Min Zhu] proceeded to place his hand between [Erin]’s legs and pronounced that the moisture in her vagina meant that her body was "being bad" and that she deserved to be punished. [Erin] attempted physically to refuse Min Zhu’s sexual advances. However, she was powerless to fight her father off. Min Zhu was approximately 39 years old, was a grown man in his prime, and was much larger and very much stronger than [Erin]. Min Zhu was approximately 5’11" tall and weighed approximately 160-170 pounds at that time. [Erin] was a fourteen-year-old girl, was only 5’4" tall and weighed less 90 lbs. Min Zhu became more aggressive and mounted [Erin]. When [Erin] struggled, Min Zhu began choking and restraining [Erin] with a blanket. He threatened to kill her. [Erin] stopped fighting her father as she was physically overpowered and feared that she would be severely harmed physically. [Erin]’s fear was all the more pronounced in light of Min Zhu’s long history of domestic violence and lack of remorse or conscience. Min Zhu then proceeded to rape [Erin]. — Excerpted from the January 18, 2000 draft complaint by Erin Zhu, the daughter, rape victim, and hush money recipient of WebEx President and CTO Min Zhu, filed as an exhibit in Opposition to the Defendants’ Motion to Strike in Zeleny v. Zhu & WebEx, Santa Clara Superior Court Case Number CV-809286. On January 19, 2000, I traveled to Palo Alto, California, to meet with Min Zhu and Susan Xu to discuss settlement of Erin Zhu’s claims. I met them at the Gordon Biersch restaurant in Palo Alto, California. Min Zhu opened our meeting by describing to me his experiences in China during the Cultural Revolution. He stated that he and his wife had been sent to a remote camp and had had to struggle very hard just to survive. He said that he had been in many fights. He then told me he had come to this country and succeeded in building a billion dollar corporation, but if he lost it, he would not be troubled, because he had already undergone such hardships that any such loss would be nothing in comparison to what he had already suffered. He said he looked forward to a new experience, fighting in the American court system, and it could not do anything to him that could compare to what he had already endured. During our meeting, Min Zhu expressed familiarity with the general subject matter of Erin Zhu’s claims, although I had not specified them at any point. He did not ask me about any details of Erin Zhu’s claims. He did not deny any of the allegations. During our meeting, Min Zhu described his difficulties in parenting Erin Zhu. He said she was irresponsible. He also told me that he believed Michael Zeleny was a bad influence on her. He also speculated that Michael Zeleny was responsible for Erin’s decision to press claims against her parents. — Declaration of David W. Affeld in Opposition to Motions For Summary Judgment and Summary Adjudication By Defendants in Zeleny v. Zhu & WebEx, Santa Clara Superior Court Case Number CV-809286. The date: Tuesday, December 25, 2001. The time: between 19:15 and 19:35 PST. The action: An anonymous caller calls Michael’s AT&T mobile number 323-363-1860 seven times in a row. His caller ID is blocked. The calls are witnessed and overheard by Michael’s father Isaak Zelyony. The first six calls are wordless cackling. The last one proceeds as follows: Anonymous Caller with a heavy Chinese accent: You are a bad man.The date: Thursday, December 27, 2001. The time: 15:47 PST. The action: An anonymous caller with the same voice as before calls Michael at his home number, 323-876-8234 from a pay phone 310-216-4805. AC assays a sinister laugh, then hangs up and leaves it off the hook.The date: Friday, December 28, 2001. The time: 22:12 PST. The action: a private call to Michael’s home number, 323-876-8234. The caller ID is blocked. AC cackles and hangs up. The time: 22:16 PST. The action: a call to 323-876-8234. The caller ID is blocked. AC cackles.The time: 22:20 PST. The action: a call to 323-876-8234. The same voice as the first time.The caller ID is blocked. AC: You’re a dead man.The date: Wednesday, January 2, 2002. The time: 18:45 PST. The action: An anonymous caller calls Michael’s AT&T mobile number, 323-363-1860. The same voice as before. The caller ID is blocked. AC: I see you aren’t taking this seriously. You had two dogs, right? Go home and see how many dogs you have now. Do you understand me?The exchange continues along these lines for three minutes, until AC hangs up.  | ||||
| 2:27a | from a novel by len deighton — Are you a do-it-yourself man? — I’m a let-someone-else-do-it man. | ||||
| 7:15a | a raging and savage beast of a master [John Travolta] said that Cary Grant once gave him weight-loss advice. “Cary Grant told me to forget the whole thing about food, eating—just make it not important. I didn’t like that piece of advice, but often I had to use it to lose weight for film. Now cut to 20 years later: I told Marlon Brando what Cary Grant had said, and he said, ‘Don’t listen to Cary! You eat what you want, when you want it. You deserve it. You’ve earned the right!’ Of course I liked that advice, and as you can see, to this day I adhere to that advice!” — The Trials of Travolta, in The New York Observer, page 3 in the 12/13/2004 Edition  Harper’s Weekly, Vol. VIII. — No, 390. New York, Saturday, June 18, 1864. Rebel Cruelty — Our Starved Soldiers. — From Photographs Taken at United States General Hospital, Annapolis, Maryland Cary Grant’s advice resonates with the detachment of Epictetus’ Encheiridion. In its Hollywood applications, it might not be meant to follow its classic prototypes in suppressing the remaining six deadly sins. On the other hand, Michael’s neighboring community standards readily embrace the application of same technique, mutatis mutandis, to rid oneself of ugly fat between the ears. The trick is to forget this whole thing about thinking, reason — just make it not important. This exercise is most helpful in anticipation of old age. ( Read more... ) | ||||
| 9:50a | 1. the bad glazier
Crossposted to  larvatus,  _lutetia, about_poetry, againstnature, history, les_nerfs, old_french_lit, and philosophy. |
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