Secret Laboratory
Music, News, & Global Affairs
I quit Netflix yesterday, having realized that I was spending an extraordinary amount of time watching nothing useful at all. I mean, complete shit. I’m not even sure how many prison shows I’ve seen, or documentaries on gangs like the Bloods and the Crips. For hours, I’d sit here like a slack-jawed idiot, learning...
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I apologize for neglecting my column for the last few days, but much of my weekend was spent coping with a nasty stomach virus while a parade of idiots crashed around my home, howling drunkenly and trying gamely to destroy both my apartment and my marriage. I had to fire one of our Entertainment...
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Thousands of people are converging on our nation’s Capitol; those who can’t make it all the way to Washington D.C. are showing up at the doors of their representatives’ local offices for discussions and sit-ins. “We came to tell members of Congress that they should represent the 99 percent not just corporations and the...
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Barack Obama is at it again, making grand speeches and promises that he can’t keep. The president’s remarks at the G-20 summit were laughable at best; at worst, they were dishonest and cruel. It’s time for politicians to stop trying to maintain the status quo—folks just aren’t buying it anymore. All the world leaders...
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I’ve been tinkering with this site for the last few days, adding pages and more features. Hopefully by early next week, I will be changing hosts and registering a new domain name—and along with that, will come even more changes. I originally built Secret Laboratory as a way to promote my books; but now,...
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Michele Bachmann doesn’t give a shit that she finished last in the Florida Straw Poll; in fact, she says that the only reason things worked out like they did is because she let her supporters vote for someone else. She actually said that. “We told all of our supporters in Florida that they were...
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It’s 4:30 on Saturday afternoon and I’ve just now sat down at this machine to crank out some wisdom. I was awake until five o’clock in the morning, back up at ten, spent four hours cleaning the house, took a shower, and then fought to unclog the bathroom sink. The kids are tired and...
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Wisconsin is making history today. Six Senate seats are up for recall and people are saying that probably at least three or four of them will go to Democrats. (They need three to take back control; personally, I’m hoping for all six.) The polls don’t close until eight o’clock, so we won’t know for...
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New Jersey Governor Chris Christie apparently worked himself into such a lather with his blustering and bullshit, that he was hospitalized for difficulty breathing. That man ought to take it easy—he’s only been in office for eighteen months and it would be a shame not to have him to kick around anymore. But to...
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We’re still a year-and-a-half away from the 2012 presidential election and already it is one of the most ridiculous lampoons that I’ve ever witnessed. So far, the lineup of potential Republican candidates who have thrown their hat in the ring—and who have thrown in the towel—reads like a Who’s Who of the biggest boobs...
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For those of us here in Minnesota, winter is not quite over. May is half gone and a few hours ago, it was 40 degrees outside. I had the fireplace on and the space heater going. Then the sun came out, the temperature jumped about 30 degrees, and I had to open the windows.
These days we hear a lot of talk about Global Warming. Whether or not there is any truth to it remains to be seen—and frankly, it doesn't make a damned bit of difference either way. Climate change is real—warmer, colder, whatever—but it has nothing to do with us and we're never going to prevent it. And since we got a foot of snow last week and it's going to be 90 on Tuesday ... well ... I'm not sold on Global Warming. The weatherman can't even predict rain, let alone tell us whether or not we're facing an inferno and/or an ice age.
This weekend is the fishing opener. This means very little to me, as I never bother with a license anyway. It's also Mother's Day. Recently I've been bombarded by emails from an online florist, suggesting that I send Ex-wife #2 a beautiful bouquet.
Never in hell. Maybe if they had an option to have the arrangement stuffed with angry bees; but barring that ... no.
To hell with holidays and bees and everything else. For the last 24 hours, Terencio and I have been plotting the future of this magazine. He even wrote his column and published a couple of articles. The next order of business is for me to write something.
And I might. I have plenty to say—none of it important, of course—but a meandering essay with no direction whatsoever is probably the best way to ease back into my routine. Politics? Not to start. Not today.
And ... meh.
—John T. Schmitz
Publisher & Editor-in-Chief
Founder, Maple Hills Press
editor@secretlaboratory.org
"I wanted my own column in the sidebar ... but now I don't know what to do with it."
"But sure you do! You write in it! That is what most people who claim the moniker of writer would likely do."
"But what do I write?"
"The resolution to that parable, my friend, lies upon the path that you must seek."
"Who are you?! And where did you come from?!"
"I am...the part of you that is, and will be, in all that we are..."
Hello Lab!
The voices are becoming louder and the cries ever more commanding. I hear them and I am working the best I can to whip myself into some kind of respectable shape and take back my claim to authorship.
So, I have been signaled to action from the Lab's headquarters. There has been much waking from many deep slumbers and now the drowsiness is fading and the challenges of the day are dutifully materializing before my conscience in their daily summons to contest.
No fear, Secret Laboratory! Power down the Bat Beacon, John.
John. John? Wherefore art thou? Come quickly and hear ye: The Lab is scheduled to receive a bright and refreshing burst of content! I have plans for at least one new category: Network Security
In the recent weeks I have become familiar with penetration testing software such as Backtrack and Kali Linux. These are Linux based Operating Systems that are used by network security professionals for white hat constructive hacking; and network exploiting operators for black hat destructive hacking. Writers of Secret Laboratory are free to show interest in this new category if you so choose. I will be producing content regarding how to crack WEP/WPA/WPA2 wireless encryption and how to protect yourself from such attacks, for starters. It only gets interesting from there.
For those of you interested in preparing yourself for this new world of fun and adventure, I recommend you go ahead and get the tools: Kali Linux
It can be downloaded at - http://www.kali.org/downloads/
The Secret Laboratory is in the grueling process of churning old gears and installing new ones to bring life into our world of journalistic comedy and tragedy. Sink or swim, this boat is headed out to sea.
I'm headed off to write a column now that the voices in my head have stopped...
But I can't seem to find John.
John?
Oh shit. Really? He's in the bathroom? Again? Geez, I'm glad I didn't have whatever he did. Must have been the pills. I'm glad I only had the purple ones...
"Hey John! Can you reach the mini fridge from in there? I think I need another beer!"
—Terencio Safford
Editor, Secret Laboratory
terencio@secretlaboratory.org
