[inlink]jason,111[/inlink]

I know people here cuz I got to school at UB and all. I got into the site because (e:Paul)'s my classmate, and when he told us about his MFA work, I thought, damn, that's a cool site. And you'd have to be blind to not recognize the raw talent, effort, heart and soul that has gone into this thing. I'm an old-time webmaster ( ) so it's especially satisfying to see eStrip succeed...

In my mind, eStrip needs outsiders. Without that, well, I dunno. I've talked with (e:Paul) about his goals, and I know that he's really interested in this localized network community, as opposed to all the other online communities that focus on bringing together people from all over the world. I think it is a cool project, and I believe in it. But if the whole local community can't get on, then it's more of a clubhouse, and that's not quite the same thing. How am I going to feel like a creepy (just turned 30) old guy spying on everyone else's private journals if it's a safe-zone club where everyone feels just fine blurting out any old thing.

Words have consequences. Images have consequences. We can't pretend it doesn't exist, even if we put ourselves into a discourse group where everyone speaks the same dialect. I think recent (e:strip) history ((e:pageseven) anyone?) proves the dangerous quality of language exists and occasionally rears its head and slaps us in the face with a 12" of miscommunication.

So while (e:jasonsback) has a point about the in-crowd that certainly exists on eStrip, I'd like to think, hope, that crowd has really been formed around the on-site interactions. Certainly IRL interaction is important, but I would hope that the cliques and interactions on (e:strip) are as much about what people say, think and do on their journals than anything else.

I remember when (e:paul) uploaded the skinny dipping shots (or were they just nekkid dudes in the woods?) -- I thought, wow, that's ballzy. I wouldn't do that. And I wouldn't. Mainly because I'm not comfortable with that, and I hope that's just as OK as (e:paul) doing it. (And I hope that doesn't discourage ANYONE else from ALSO posting nudie pix -- it's a pr0n powered Internet...)

Soyeon's journal used to be my fave. Now I can't even read my faves from her journal. How sad. Why did I like it? Cuz it felt personal. It felt like sometimes she said more than she might have said if she had stopped to consider it...

I like to read (e:ajay), (e:holly), (e:matthew), (e:terry), (e:uncutsaniflush), and (e:jasonsback) Why? Mostly cuz they post enough that I feel like I have gotten to know them a little. It's inspired me to post more. Maybe you feel the same way?

And for any of my students, employers, teachers, or unclassifiable guardians (or those people from the government who are watching me ), HEAR THIS: My journal on eStrip is where I come to have fun and vent and rant and rave in Buffalo, in order to make the most of my time here and have fun. I hope people dig it, but that's fine if you don't -- I work on other stuff much harder. I hope I don't offend you, but if I do, then let's talk about it. Don't come here looking for representation, respectful presentation or otherwise fucking stuffy bullshit like that.

In these trying times... let's have an Easter Egg Hunt:

2600 (http://www.2600.com) is having an Easter Egg Hunt on the DVD for their film, Freedom Downtime, which is a pretty dang amazing piece of documentary work. It covers the persecution of Phiber Optik and Kevin Mitnick. Mitnick ended up doing years in prison without being charged, and has only recently been allowed to touch a computer again. You never know when someone will rewire the space station using a pay phone and a bubble gum wrapper... Anyway, here's the page describing the contest ( ), check out the film if you feel like remembering how our civil liberties were trampeled over the previous decade, too...

Ooooh! [inlink]ajay,304[/inlink]

Oooh, oooh! [inlink]paul,2953[/inlink]

Yay, I love playing with images. I guess I should point out Sarah's "Name Game" project, which is a commentary on "network semiotics" -- how images are named and the juxtaposition between what we call the image and what is in the image. The thing began as collections of photos of people labelled with their name, found on search engines. And then we worked together to do an interactive version of the thing. Anyway, you can play with it and see some weird stuff here:

And one of the coolest Flickr things I ever saw is this . It features a color wheel where you select your hue and shade. Then it dynamically grabs images from Flickr where the color values are closest to your chosen color. I think it's fucking brilliant. Amazing. Now, this is proof that there is good in the world...

Just to follow up on yesterday's post:

The    rates of oral and anal sex among people who planned to stay abstinent until marriage are higher than among other teens who have not had intercourse at all, according to the study, published in the April issue of the Journal of Adolescent Health. Researchers found that kids believe engaging in oral and anal sex gets around the rules of abstinence programs by technically preserving their virginity.

Read more:

U.S. District Judge James Whittemore said the 41-year-old woman's parents, Bob and Mary Schindler, had not established a "substantial likelihood of success" at trial on the merits of their arguments.

Whittemore wrote that Schiavo's "life and liberty interests" had been protected by Florida courts. Despite "these difficult and time strained circumstances," he wrote, "this court is constrained to apply the law to the issues before it."

This is exactly what I hoped would happen last night as I lay down. I had a wild dream that all those fuckfaces who want to corrupt our government and legal system would be snubbed by a judge who would simply return the same verdict Mike Shaivo won in the previous 15 trials.

Now maybe this new "law" will be quickly overturned as unconstitutional and our esteemed leaders can concern themselves with something more important, like how to kill more foreigners...