So we have over 125 members now and I would really like to see that number grow to about 300 over the next couple months. At that point we will have a really good base to define what was the elmwood experience during our time here. I would like to branch out in some more in terms of user background, hopefully picking up some more younger people and some more older adults. Right now our average age is around 24-29.

I am also working on developing some new stuff and a new look although that might have to wait till my other projects are done.

Today, I sent an article about our site to Alt Press . I hope they carry it. I have been meaning to talk to more news sources about it but was so discouraged after the Artvoice, buffalo.com, and west side times let down.

[size=m]Art Voice[/size]
When I wrote to artvoice telling them about the site, I thought they would be excited about the development of a free local site where people could have a "local" voice on the internet. I was kind of hoping for an article but instead was offered a classified ad for free or a $500 spread. I was not interested in spending $500 on them. I chose neither. I have worked so hard for this project to be free and I felt like they were trying to exploit me.

[size=m]Buffalo.com[/size]
Then I had a similar experience with Buffalo.com. No need to retell it here, you can read it on the entry from the time it happend [inlink]paul,1818[/inlink].

[size=m]West Side Times[/size]
Then we wrote to the west side times. Didn't even get a response!

I guess that is why we created this site in the first place - as a way to circumvent the old media barriers to publication.

So anyhow, I am being brave and writing to Alt Press this time. Wish us luck.

Here we have (e:matthew) trying to take an upclose picture of something in the sand. From far away it looks quite funny.

We ended up at Bennett Beach again. It is much nicer than Wendt Beach which is closer by but trashier.

We went to (e:trisha) 's bachelorette party last night. Many of the peeps were out. Congratulations trisha. It was also nice to see (e:springfaerie) this evening. I really like her, not to mention that she was supercute in her snow white wig.

[sizem]Paper Media[/size] At frizzy's, (e:southernyankee) took a pic with (e:flacidness) in the photobooth and I recaptured it on the 'kick. The photobooth is a strange media producing dinosaur. It's black and white and prints on paper. Paper! Yuck! I thought we were promised a paper free lifestyle 10 years ago. Thank you (e:terry) for never allowing me to buy a printer with ink.

[sizem]Translate It[/size] So now I have a picture of this picture and I'm sending it to the web and we have a situation with media based on other media, based on an event being sent to another medium. Is it changing during this process? What is the data? What is the media? Can we separate the form from the content in this case or are they intrisically interconnected. While my life revolves around this translation of digital media resources, I am still not exactly sure what the essence of the media is and if it can be separated from the content.

On the web, you can easily separate display information and style from content. But can you do that with other mediums. What about a photo. What is the content in this case? Is it chamile or TK? Is it the paper and ink? Does the history of the paper or the photo machine / sidekick and web somehow imprint some sort of mark into the content / media? Or is the media itself is unimportant? Does a photo of a photo somehow lose something in translation. What if they are using the same medium, what if they arn't (e.g. a picture of a painting)?

So can the original paper photo perhaps express something that the digital version of the image can't. Maybe it's just ascribing a sense of nostalgia. The photo machine and paper strip does have a certain aethetic appeal that is lacking in the digital reproduction. But what will happen in 20 years when the digital phone snapshots have a similar nostalgic feel to paper pictures. Is it possible that with time this aspect lost in translation can "develop."

We can't just look at these translations alone, we should also consider the reason for making the translation and see what that offers the media. If it offers enough value to the media, does it make up for what is lost in translation? In this case the digitization offers mass distribution to an otherwise static, temporary, and easily destroyable medium.

Okay enough of this.

It is so loud here. They have been doing so much construction to turn this once nice house into an apartment complex. I kind of wish we moved out. It is so loud now with construction and honestly, I bet it will be even more loud once we live in a complex with people above and below us. It is also very expensive for that.

We heard they will be installing a sprinkler system. I never intended to live in an apartment building. With my luck people will have cats and we will have to break the lease.

Here is recording of what we woke up to this morning. It's an all day process. Please turn your speakers down before playing it. It is mega loud.

::DOWNLOAD SOUND::

Yesterday they started early in the morning and went until 7 at night. Most of the day throwing stuff around and yelling at each other about who is and isn't working. My landlord must have hired the cheepest, trashiest crew available. I should have recorded them yelling at each other.

Back in july I wrote this journal entry [inlink]paul,1405[/inlink] about prisoner abuse. This may be old news but because I don't have television I haven't really heard much about it anymore. Barely anyone believed me that the bottom picture was real because I had found it on an arab site at the time.



Well, it just resurfaced on the web again, this time on the Washington Post Site.

The person in charge --> "Specialist Armin J. Cruz of the502 nd Military Intelligence battalion was also demolished to the rank of private as another punitive measure after he confessed to forcing three naked inmates at the notorious Iraqi jail to crawl along a floor before making them simulate sex acts."

The Washington post has an entire gallery of the images here