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\headline={\hfil 18 Oct 91\hfil}

Dear long lost brother Greggggg,

Long time no see. I was sort-of planning on being on Cape Scrod this�
past summer (was gonna go to the Rainbow Gathering in VT) but I�
canceled the East Coast part of the trip, since I was mainly�
interested in driving through New Mexico, which I did. (Another�
story.)

None of us contacts each other very often, so I thought I'd at least�
do a status dump of sorts anyways. 

Enclosed are some of the things I've been working on ``lately''. I'm�
not doing HOMOCORE anymore. It got too crazy, plus I lost tons of�
money. The LPG book, I gotta do an update to it after my trip (5,000�
miles, buying propane was NO PROBLEM anywhere, and it ran great),�
{\smc Boy With Gun} is a one shot (And probably a bit bizarre to you�
-- it's a large in-joke, to a crowd of one -- me. I was kinda�
depressed \& lonely when I wrote it. It was also meant to be funny in�
an obscure sort of way, and I hoped that by putting ``boys'' and guns�
in the same place, that I'd get some interesting hate mail. Shit --�
not one!)

I've kinda dropped out of the programming biz. Too terrifying to get a�
real job. For the last 5 years I've been sort of avoiding the fact I�
don't like doing it 40 hrs/week any more. I don't want to spend all of�
my waking hours on someone's stupid fucking product. My last job�
lasted three weeks. Oh well.

So I'm back to being an electronic technician. For a radio station,�
KKSF. Yuppie bland newage (rhymes with sewage). But I get to fix all�
sorts of analog stuff, and build things of my own and generally fuck�
off a lot. And, I got two short-term contract jobs, helping to build�
two radio station studios from scratch! (See coincidence below.)

I'm planning on moving from SF to New Mexico. I'm done here. Our�
household will be moving there, slowly. In spring, we'll go again for�
a final scouting trip, and we'll buy land (cheap as shit) or at least�
figure out what's the story. If all goes according to ``plan'', we'll�
do a dual-household thing and spend time in both places, here and�
there.

One thing I've always wanted to do was operate a radio station. We�
even went so far as to get the Federal Code of Regulations Title 47�
parts 0 - 70 and read much of it (yuck). Turns out, no free channels�
anywhere near any decent city. 

However, we're not moving to any decent city, but probably Las Vegas,�
New Mexico (50 mi.~N of Santa Fe on Route 25). Funny about this radio�
station job stuff, huh. More research is needed; this is still at the�
brainstorm stage.

We're in a new warehouse here, four of us are the same people as�
before. Much nicer place (skylights, parking lot, etc) but further out�
of the city, but on bus lines. 

I hear Anne is having a baby. Mum is all upset by the usual, Anne \&�
Rodney etc. I suppose Rodney can be a jerk, and gives Anne shit, but�
Anne isn't stupid so I assume she knows what she's doing, and in any�
case as can talk all we like amongst ourselves, but it's her biz in�
the end, no?! I think Mum is getting over it though. (She's gonna be a�
fucken grandmother (!) and as much as she sez she hates it you I and�
she knows she loves it\dots)

If you are ever looking for a thing to do with your computer that will�
consume all of your time, require as much memory and disk as you can�
buy, take years to master (two years + for me, and I still consider�
myself merely a ``\TeX nician'') consider getting Donald Knuth's�
\TeX{} mathematical typesetting program (pronounced�
{\seventeenpointroman t\-ek}). It can do stuff like 

$$\biggl( \sum_{k=1}^n A_k \biggr)$$

or gems like

$$\displaystyle\biggl({\partial^2\over\partial x^2}+
{\partial^2\over\partial y^2}\biggr)\bigl|\varphi(x+iy)\bigr|^2=0$$

in case you give a shit.

The software is all public domain too. My installation takes up about�
8 megs of disk space. This was printed on a Hewlett Packard DeskJet�
500, not a laser printer (which, if you have one, looks fucken-A�
great). There are drivers for Epsons too, but they don't look this�
good.

It's {\it not} WYSIWYG, at all. It's procedural, using embedded�
control sequences. It's a gigantic programming language. It is the�
single most complex system I've ever used. The ``manual'' is a 500�
page hard cover textbook written in, of course, \TeX, called {\smc The�
\TeX book}, by Donald E.~Knuth from Addison Wesley Publishing. Cost me�
about \$30! \TeX{} users are very very snooty; and mainly are lofty�
academic types who use it to write PhD thesis papers or such like. Of�
course, I do grotty punkzines with it, and freak out other \TeX{}�
users. (There is one other \TeX{}-set zine, called the {\smc The�
Penumbra} in NYC that uses \TeX. We know each other of course.)

All the typefaces are public domain, unlike Venture and all that DTP�
stuff. I've got a few hundred different ones (this one is called {\smc�
Punk}, which the designer, Knuth himself, sez, ``not for serious�
typesetting use''). {\eightpointsanserif Like this 8 point} through�
{\seventeenpointsanserif big shit}. And, the {\it sources to the fonts�
themselves} come with it, and a program called {\smc Metafont} that�
builds the fonts. Which is the {\it slowest} program I've ever used;�
it took my 25 MHz 386 a full week to compile all 76 basic font files.�
I added a special character (a zero-width hyphen) so that I could do�
what's called hanging punctuation (where quotes, commas, hyphens, etc�
hang in the margins outside a block of justified text. Snooty or�
what.)

Anyways, if you're interested, I'd suggest getting the \TeX book�
first. I can send you it on diskettes (about 8 720K's), and later, if�
you want, {\smc Metafont} (you can use a pre-compiled set of fonts;�
you only need {\smc Metafont} if you're the kind of asshole that likes�
to change things that shouldn't be messed with (I am one). {\smc�
Metafont} makes \TeX{} look like BASIC.)

Well I'm typed out. Don't feel obligated to write back, like I said,�
I'm just saying hello, etc. Things go around and come around, I'm not�
worrying about who does what. Bye!!!!

\vskip\parskip
\line{\hfill Love,\hskip1.5in}
\vskip\parskip
\line{\hfill Tom\hskip1in}

\bye
