It is almost time to start adding new features. I am looking for other artists interested in displaying their artwork, poetry, prose, and sound/video projects. I have one more presentation at UB and then the rest of the semester is projects, so hopefully you will see some results.

I have been extremely busy catching up with installing linux for my VR art prject. It has been an insane tedious process. I finally got the wireless to work which was seriously a miracle in itself. It took about 4 days of non stop tinkering. So finally I am untethered and awaiting the new hard drive to make the switch complete.

I also got a chance to visit Nonna. She seems to be doing good but her legs are really hurting her. While there I got lots of pictures from the old family albums and scanned them.

This is my post from Suse Linux. The site looks nice from here except for the color bar in the update section. Otherwise I would say it looks nicer than on Windows or Mac. So I am stressing out so much. I have decided I hate VR. And not virtually, I really hate it to the point it makes me sick. I find it to be a time consuming piece of crap for rich white people to contemplate what relaity is. I really have no interest in adding to the noise of it.

To make it worse the only way to export my models is with another proprietary software plugin costs like $600. I have no interest anymore as I am fully satisified with 3D on a 2D interface. At least untill VR is truly more immersive. Stereoscopics just isn't enough for me to find it compelling. But now I am stuck for the semester and have to make something of it. Ihave tried to justify a socially meaningful piece but it is quite ridiculous. Everything is either already done or far to pretentious or menaingless to warrant my time. I was trying to think of something along the lines of freign language aquisition with VR but why not just visit the place and the people in real life or in a book. So then I thought well a room for translation. But then video phone is better.

And then I though dance hall. It would be great a place to dance with people from afar in a fantastical way but then I realized how contrived it is to use the interface and that I cannot detect full body movemnet which makes it lame. Who wants to dance with one hand.

Here some up coming things that will be on the site:

1. We are going to do video interviews on the street of what people want in an elmwood community site. One, we find out what people want. Second, the idea being that once we get video of them up on the site with their responses both they and all of their friends and family will visit the site.

2. We are also launch the cloth banner contest where people will be making visale banner around the neighborhood and entering them into a contest for the same publciity reasons.

3. Then the next plan is to buy a bunch of digital voice recorders (i need a grant for this) and have people go around recording interviews, events, witnessing unjustices, etc on elmwood in and organizing them into a online audio database with a visual represenation of where the recording occured. I am thinking 3D with Java (no plugin) but not sure yet. There will of ocurse also be a low bandwidth seachable text database of the recordings. I am thinking of making a check out system so that anyone can get a voice recorder from a storefront for a rental fee or free and then bring us digital content. We could also accept tape, CD, etc nd transpose it. Its kind of like indy media with a virtual map and audio content.

4. The journals will still be free and available as they are a great source of recording personal information and bringing people to the site.

5. The summer will hopefully see the first stage of the wireless arm of the network. Where we move elmwood strip off the internet and onto a local intranet convered by wireless technology. It will still be mirrored on the internet but I want to see it off the grid at some point. I would also like to see an old game console and cell phone connection to the site. So that people without computers can still access the data by means of another electronic interface.

The other day at UB I was having an open conversation with some adjuncts about teaching as adjunct professors. We were discussing how we work really hard and get paid very little. I assumed we were all talking about similar figures when we said very little.

Some of them had been attending the DeLanda seminar at Canisius and commented on how beautiful the Canisius Campus is and asked me how much it costs to attend. I said I wasn't exactly sure but somewhere around $25,000. They were astounded and responded with you must make so much money. I laughed and then we started talking about our salaries. It turns out they make about $3600 to teach a class while Canisius adjuncts up until this year only made $1800 (since the union tried to form $2300). Let me mention that the adjuncts at UB with whom I spoke are new adjuncts and have not been teaching for years. I thought to myself well, I am not technically an ajunct. I mean my contract says multimedia specialist and get paid a lot more than if I was an adjunct teaching two classes each semester because I tutor students 10 hours a week in the web lab. But when you multiply the UB rate times 4 classes a year I am getting paid only slightly more than if I was just teaching the classes at UB with no other responsibility.

I have to say in defense of Cansius, that the work environment is significantly better. I have an office, my contract has been renewed 3 years in a row. There is serious hope for me becomming full-time once I complete my MFA and the staff and other faculty are extremely nice and a pleasure to work with. My classes are also smaller than at UB. One class I teach has 12 students while the other only has 16. So really I am not that upset with my pay and situation at the time. I am, however, a little disillusioned with this new letter I received from Herbert J. Nelson - Vice president for Academic Affairs at Canisius.

I was wondering what happend with the Union at Canisius. I hadn't heard anything since the pay increase. I do, however, remmeber receiving some letters from Canisius that made me feel like I should not join. I guess other people did too, so the union tried to charge the school with an unfair labor practices charge. Somehow, it fell through. According to Herbert Neslon, "the charge was, of course false and without foundation." Yet , I do remember feeling that I should not join. I wish I still had the original letter. At the time, I even had a talk with a full-time tenured faculty member in my department who told me to distance myself from it ASAP - or at least that is what he would do!
This week I received a letter from the Union asking me to sign up again (which I find to be really unorganized) , however, I also received a letter from Herbert Nelson explainign that Canisius has never intimidated anyone about this union issue and then closing the letter with an intimidating statement and now I am conflicted with what to do. What should I do?

Today I took part in a lecture about video game violence. in case you didn't knwo I am 100% against violence in video games. I thisnk its a lame excuse that we want to do thisngs we can't do in real life. what about magic for magic sakes and not just killing. Where are the kids that want to use magic to turn into squirrels and dance on rainbows.
As for ultra violence, two thisngs stick in mind. The game postal where you mission is to get some milk from the convenient store while gas, matches, chainsaws, knives, and machine guns get in the way of innocent civilians carrying out their lives and the new America's Army game which is made by the government and trains you to be a soldier. Whats really sick is that the government cam up with rating system to keep violent games away from kids but this one and all its gory killing amazingly slipped by with a 13 and over rating. Here is my favorite the fragmentation grenade.





What's weird in thiss next screen shot is they gave the bad guy terrorist a pretty big package. I thisnk that's weird homo agenda for some army 3D modeler.



There are lots more screen shots and even videos at


Check it out.

Note: Screen shots are exactly 666 pixels high. Coincidence or work of the devil - you decide!!!

I just learned two new 3D come in 3D. One of them is one of the best applications I have ever seen in 3D. It is an earth browser.



It allows you to actually browse the earth in 3D and zoom in on things as small as a car. This is the campus where I first started speaking German in at Northern Arizona University.


You can zoom out from car to space in about a second. I believe this whole thing works by applying sattelite photos as a texture to topigraphics data, plotted as 3D lanscapes. Here is anothe rphoto of where Matt, Terry, and I went hiking in Las Vegas

Here is a photo of the same mountain zoomed out a little. It is circled in red on the right. The red circle on the left s where Terry's parents house was. You can zoom in right up to the car out front.

This is my family coat of arms. I never knew. Thank you google.

I experienced a tragic racist situation at Wilson Farms today. Below is my letter to Wilson Farms recounting the situation. You can respond in the forum on our site, as well as, send your thoughts to them - here is the contact information.

Phone: 1-800-522-2522
Web:


Snail Mail: Wilson Farms]
6363 Main Street
Williamsville, NY 14221

To Who It May Concern,
Today, I went to Wilson Farms on Elmwood Ave at Auburn to buy a gallon of water as I have almost everyday for about 2 years. I wish I never left the house. Outside the store was a black homeless guy. He apparently was told by the Wilson Farms Manager Ken Kensek (or something close to that) that he could noo wait outside because he was "bad for business." Then the manager dragged him inside by the shoulder in a very "I'm gonna lynch you kind of way." and said he was going to have him arrested for trespassing. Although, I feel this is kind of harsh, that is not even the situation that really offended me as a customer.

At that point, the black homeless man pleaded with Wilson Farm's Ken Kensek? not to be to not be arrested for trespassing outside and then Ken told him, "here's the situation . . if I ever see you again I AM GOING TO CRACK YOUR HEAD OPEN WITH A BASEBALL BAT." Then the black man said, "ok, ok, just don't call the police." Followed by the manager saying, " DO YOU THINK I'M KIDDING, I'M GOING TO BREAK YOUR SKULL." I find this to be disgusting and totally unprofessional.

I was shopping at the moment and ran out to tell my friend who was out of earshot. I came back a couple minutes later, not sure what to do.

I decided to return what I bought in protest of the unfair racist treatment and coproral threats against this man. Ken was not immediately visable to I returned the products to the cashier and loudly stated why.

The people behind me also left their goods. I am going to start an all out boycott until there is some sort of formal reprocussion for Ken.
Lastly, I would like to point out that I am the webmaster of the new a community forum that is just starting this week in order to report on neighboorhood news in the Elmwood Strip Community of Buffalo, NY. I am also a professor at Canisius College, and thus have many venues for spreading this information if you ignore this situation.I expect a formal report as to what reprocussions Ken suffered for his unprofessional and downright illegal behavior in your store.

Sincerely,
Paul Visco

You may question . . . why I have been ignoring you . . why I don't pick up my phone . . . why I have black circles under my eyes. . . why I don't' update the site . . why I don't post to my journal . . why I have stopped production just about 100 % on all of my once loved projects. . . why I have no friends except for the few who are stuck with me . . why I can't make any new ones. . Its because I am busy trying to get another certificate proving who I am in some abstract way - just like the first one it is meaningless. . . In fact I would say that getting this certificate of public approval is actually detracting from my artistic abilities. . . fuck you UB and your lame ass busy work.