We need to start posting Recommedia lists for people.

 

On the one hand, most Recommedia would make sense in the toolpedia store as kit (possibly 6th line kit : media library) because a lot of it is purchaseable.  A lot of media is non-purchasable as well though, such as creative commons media.  Posting as a material works I guess, but I kinda like the idea of leaving the materials for projects and things that are made by internal members for use in campaigns.

 

I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on it.

It's' been over a week since I started messing with LinuxMCE.  It is poorly documented.  Alow me to state that a bit better....

 

IT IS POORLY DOCUMENTED

 

Uhhhh, ever try and deploy a release candidate level beta class open source home automation software suite on rigged together and scrounged hardware?  Yeah, well, me either.  I've been keeping notes and I'm going to write a complete guide for the 6th line kit articles (because, uhhh, yeah).  The system does things like PBX / telephone system and voicemail integration, security grid control, media playback and recording, location to location intercoms, irrigation / lighting / etc control, user and group based access permissions, spawns controls onto cellphones and pdas, and more.  It's very useful.  Here is a vauge nested missions layout.

 

 

Learn LinuxMCE

  -beat head neverendingly into keyboard

  -wait forever for someone to show up in the IRC

  -click random page on the project wiki over and over and memorize what comes up

  -wish for death to come creeping silently in the night

 

Deploy LinuxMCE

  - Integrate all existing media collections into pluto file architecture and properly tag them

        -accumulate all needed cover art

        -re-id3 tag everything

        -collect attribute data for video media

        -find a way to display media (like series) as a single item on directors

  - Hardware analysis

         -find pc's and screens for at least 5 MD's in each the viralink and coder houses

              - weep over the need of 10 reasonably powerful PC's

         -find at least 3 webcams for each house on the grid

         -find speakers for each machine as well as an ambient microphone

         -experiment and choose orbiter and control devices (wiimote, pda's, cellphones, wireless mice and keyboards, etc) for each USER 

         - create network redundancy between houses, including having a backend CORE at each location

         - find sensors for doors and windows as well as numpads for keyed entry at doors (?) and sirens

         - find acceptable moutings for machines in living spaces that are mainly hands off

   -Software work

         -Create Security Scenarios that integrate with users individually

         -Create media scenarios that provide easy access to web streaming content

         -find a way to integrate the videoconfrence and voice chat with Second Life

         -find a way to integrate empowerthyself links to live voice chat with someone(s)

Create LinuxMCE deployment guide

  -log all steps taken to create a deployment

  -reformat log with pertinent wiki entries

  -take metric but-tons of screencaps / videos of doing things in the web admin software

  -create hardware checklists

  -create simple site security zone checklist / guide

 

 

 

I could die, people.  I'm so damn sick of this software I could hork.  Once it's 'done' (deployed) it'll be worth it though.  If I get an easy to follow deployment guide, we can have a standard for plugging collectives into each other digitally that will provide all kinds of really really really fun, productive, and practical features for any 6th line kitline.

 

Also, giant multitouch media display wall HO!

From one of my sock puppets:

 

Dear List Serve members,


 


 


We need your help!  For over a year now, someone has been  painting the same graffiti on all of the recycling bins at Broad Ripple Park. This is very costly to paint over and it is affecting all three types of bins at the location. The city is investing your tax dollars in the painting and maintaining for the Recycle Indianapolis drop-off containers and recently a freshly painted and refurbished container was vandalized by this person.


If you have any information or knowledge of this person, please report it to Lisa Laflin, Recycling Coordinator, at llaflin@indygov.org. She will pass the information along to our environmental police officer to investigate.


Thank you for your assistance

 

Lisa Laflin

Recycling Coordinator

City of Indianapolis  

This place feels very empty all the time.  I spend a bit of time watching the trackers and the page visit logs, trying to find out where the users here focus their attention.  It really looks like people spend a lot of time tied into what I call 'propaganda pages', and very little time on the core function pages like ideas and missions.  I also note that this site has about the same post to reply ratio as a fat aspie kid on myspace posting blogs about his distaste of some Naruto Fanfic communities new administration.

 

It's really hard to keep motivated on this community when there is so little community interaction.  In many cases it's understandable of course, the site is still EXTREMELY hard to navigate and there isn't any kind of useful guide to help people learn to navigate the site.  I've done the best I can, emailing all new members and telling folks that I'd be glad to give them a tour and answer questions.. but of course this very RARELY nets an interested party.

 

Like most communities online, participation levels are less than 10% of the registered user levels.  This is to be expected, even in a community with the types of messages that are floating around here.  I fear we have a hard case of 'too high a bar set' here at the moment.  People maybe don't think that they are competent to make ideas, missions, skills and the like postings because they really don't want to be responsible for a less than perfect post.  I think that this is a big part of things.

 

As I posted in the idea "Locations Vie for your Presence", there are innumerable webcommunities out there that desperately request for each and every one of our participation.  I'm a big chief enough to even get emails sometimes nowadays asking for me to become active on this website or that forum or some wiki over yonder.  Each community of course is going to be THE DEFINITIVE community for something or another and all they need is just ONE MORE active member to really get things 'started'.

 

I have lost count of the alias' I've used and the number of communties i've assisted in starting up.  How many wiki's have I had to make posts to and watched one day an administration fight lead to the loss of the database?  I have no idea anymore.  In fact, just in the Wog community there has had to be at least 4.  Hundreds of hours of labor spent and wasted entirely for no real benifit but to give the founder(s) of the community in question a nice high article count to look at and think 'behold, look what I have done!'. Of course, i've also had to deal with innumerable well meaning individuals who feel that they are the ONLY person who can make things happen, and thus feel that nobody can do anything without their ok and interference.  I don't know how many times I've seen a founder interfere with the natural growth of a community by demanding that they be involved personally with every aspect of a community.  It never turns out well. 

 

Is that what I think is going to come of THIS site?  No, it is not.  What I worry most about is the tone of things.  I have never trusted a community that says that they get things done that members of the community have never even tried to do before.  I see a lot of that here.  Instead of seeing people trying to preform social, kit, or network experiments I see.... nothing.  Which means the problem in tone stays.  A community of inactivity naturally breeds problems, very easy to define problems, and it's almost time for them to start cropping up.

 

What needs to happen?  Well, I have a pretty good idea.  Followups, guides, a chatroom, a voice confrence room, and who knows what else.  There really needs to be a social spot here that isn't reliant on any one person here.   I do know one thing that needs to happen though, We can no longer promote the site as an all inclusive social movement that has SO MUCH to offer the world when we only really have 2-4 active participants.  It's a lie, which can be made truth with only a lot more activity.

 

Comment on things people!  Post ideas and skills!  Post casual discussions in the forums!  PARTICIPATE.

 

This empty space is getting old for me, and the emals I am getting promising me that THEY will create the SOLE resource for self empowerment, productive activism, urban resource provisioning, web2.0 user dashboards, metacommunity organizing, decentralized learning, and so damn many other things are becoming more and more interesting.  I wish I had the time to work on multiple projects, but I just don't.  It's been 2 years for me here, and it feels like we aren't much more developed then we where at the start.

 

As of today, projects that seem more interesting and more social to me:

RantMedia's Second Life outpost

Warren Ellis' metacommunity

CouchSurfer university

rentacoder collective

hackthissite ( always :| )

and of course my own baby Viralink Industries

 

 

Five days in a watery cave.
Another song for the day that I take to the grave.
I gotta be the first to see the specter.
Everybody want to be friends with the nectar protector.
Seventeen skulls in a hole in the woods
already know of the low down, but not of the goods.
We can't see but lo and behold her,
it's funny how we think with our heads when the shoulder is colder.
This is the truth about it.
You'll learn to never doubt it.
The whole affair is shrouded in living mystery.
So what goes on in your tree, when all you know is
your evil shadow has a cup of tea?
Back in elementary school,
there was a kid we knew, we considered him cool.
And when his eyes turned red, the principal said
he was gonna go mad from the things in his head.
Seventeen days later somebody told us there was no more school,
and the principal sold us to the ice cream shop down the street,
where it seemed there was nothing they'd let us eat, so we screamed
This is the truth about it.
You'll learn to never doubt it.
The whole affair is shrouded in living mystery.
So what goes on in your tree, when all you know is
your evil shadow has a cup of tea?
It's never too late
to take the chance of a lifetime under the weight
of life, and chance, and death.
And it's never too far out.
We don't know how the sun became a star.
They say it's always been that way,
but I'll be damned if that's the case.
We'd love to have you as our guest this afternoon.
We'll get the kettle ready, hope you show up soon.

(We'll get the kettle ready, hope you show up soon.)

We can talk about life, we can talk about death,
we can talk about film, we can talk about chess,
we can talk about the faceless evil shadow creatures
underneath our clothes
we can talk about the government conspiracies
and circumvent the challenges that represent our foes.
It's never my fault.
Take what I say with a big fat grain of salt,
and take my fears away.
We never will break out,
and we'll leave not one thing in our wake.
They say it's always been that way.
This is the truth about it.
You'll learn to never doubt it.
The whole affair is shrouded in living mystery.
So what goes on in your tree, when all you know is
your evil shadow has a cup of tea?
This is the truth about it.
You'll learn to never doubt it.
The whole affair is shrouded in living mystery.
So what goes on in your tree, when all you know is
your evil shadow has a cup of tea?
Your evil shadow has a cup of tea.

A tale of a second hand iPhone

With all this talk of developing iphone applications and the location aware device stuff that the iPhone can theoretically do, I have to admit that I am somewhat interested in picking up one of these pieces of hardware.  I did some study on the SDK and it's power, which is mighty, and decided hell... it is a goodness to have one laying around.  If for no other reason, but to be able to have it around for testing applications.

 

I put my feelers out and got a bite.  Someone with an 8gb gen1 iPhone agreed to trade their unit for a 2ghz ibm t30 laptop.  For actual cash value, this trade seems good for me.. even calculating the probable drop that will be seen in gen1 phones in about a month.  The t30 can be had for 150 on ebay, the iphone for around 330.  Before finalizing the phone trade though, I decided to check around online for information about moving over my service to use the phone myself.  I carry the oldest crappiest nokia phone ever, though it's rugged as holy hell, and wouldn't mind something with wifi or something.

AT&T or Apple?  Who's the dick here?

I found something concerning about the iPhone activation though.  This clued me in to a problem:

Q. I'm an existing customer. Can I swap out my current SIM card and start right away?
A. No. iPhone must be activated before it can be used. iPhone includes a pre-installed SIM card for your convenience.

from:http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/iphone-faqs.jsp#activate

The phone has to be activated before it can be used.  If I get a second hand iphone I have to take it to an AT&T shop and have them not only change my sim card but also requires that I sign a 2 year service contract!  Now this may not seem like a big deal to most people, but to me a 2 year service contract is something I've been avoiding for YEARS.  I am currently on a friend of mine's family plan and he CERTAINLY is not interested in signing a 2 year data access contract just so I can use this fancy ass piece of plastic.

I assumed that the unit was already fine, since it was already bought and activated by the current owner.  Apparently the only way to get around it, and even this is up in the air without more research, is to unlock the phone itself.  Does this get around the need to activate though?  I have no idea!

 

I think the whole business reeks.  Sure the 3g phones are subsidized by the telecoms so they demand your 2 year contract, but this phone was purchased at the greater old price and I feel should be acceptable to purchase second hand.  If I want to add data service to a phone I don't need a 2 year contract, it's only for the iPhone.  

Assholes.  and from wikipedia....

The iPhone normally prevents access to its media player and web features unless it has also been activated as a phone with an authorized carrier.

 

Cunts and Assholes.

I have hired an anonymous ninja page layout guy to layout the entire zine in a professional mannor.  He is being paid in a laptop, at some personal loss to myself.  At 8am CST tomorrow (Monday 16), he will begin the layout process.  I will then take the file he has made, and posted to the site, and begin full scale duplication for use over the summer.  It will, of course, not even be CLOSE to a final version of the zine but... it will serve as a pre-Alpha. 

 

If you where waiting for the right time to add a few paragraphs, maybe correct some grammer problems, add some images, or whatever now is a great time!   Hopefully there will be a great preAlpha zine that will bring in even more contributers to make the overall printable empowerment zine collection an invaluable resouce for people to Get Things Done!

 

Head over to http://www.empowerthyself.com/introduction and click 'printer friendly version'.  That's a complete copy of what's current on the zine.  Everything has an edit tab, comments are great places to put ideas and aren't printed in the end, and good luck!

 

Agent

Viralink Industries

Empowerment Collective Representitive 

dream:


I was at the time 14 years old.  I was suddenly standing in someones garage and I had no idea how I had gotten there.  I had a heavy backpack on me.  I was at some kind of party with older people and they where discussing the news of 1980, because that's what year it was.  I remember I had sat down with a group of people and talked to them about things like 9-11, the housing market crash, computers, google, persistant searches, and other things.  Someone there, another kid, told me that there was some other folks that I needed to meet.

I left the party and went down the block to an abandonded house, there was the cool light of an LED array shining from under the door.  We went inside and it looked like a solid activist war room.  Around the table where 14 year old versions of lxpk, lacie j, mr hartley, doomhammer, and a few others.  The backpack contained 2 laptops, both modern with touch screens.  Each of us had a different set of tools like that.

We then had a confrence about how we had somehow been sent back in time, in our younger bodies, and why we all had no recollection of getting there.  We all had the components to build a hell of a field team and command center.  Alex had a set of high tech encrypted radio's and TDH had a collection of extremely modern IC's and solar panels.  Lacie J had herself a few digital camcorders and microphones.  Jason had some gaming books and palm pilots.  I had 2 laptops.  

There we decided that we where gonna change things, and we did.

+.2% Negotiation - Negotiated the pickup of an electric organ and delivery to target location 6-8

+.4% Intimidation - Escorted 3 people 14 blocks through an unsafe neighborhood after a jumping.  6-8

+.2% Activism Team Building - Recruited and was recruited by a green cause tabler.  6-8

 

 

Cigar Box:

"Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, are you comfortable enough in your manhood to bite the tips off one of these? Sigmund Frueds Box of cocks. Finest grade cigars."

I want to do a long song album with a band one day that sings lovingly to known toxic chemicals in consumer goods.

 

Oh my love poly(ethylene),

who bends and shapes hot or cold

 

<3

The wheeler mission in indianapolis indiana is closing down, so large crews of desperate homeless people are clustering around downtown indianapolis in greater and greater numbers.  For the capitolist this is a fine resource that is newly made available.  Walking billboards and sticker teams just got a LOT cheaper.  Nothing makes an agent feel better than cheap labor. 

Ahhh mission accomplished.  I was feeling a little down earlier so I went out and entertained myself.  I spent 30 dollars and hired a few local homeless guys for a few hours.  One threw paper flower pedals in front of me while I marched downtown from the big new library and through downtown and back to the indian resturant.  He carried a sign I hade that said "Duty now: for the future!"  I had 2 of the others follow behind me and yell "I'm shouting!" whenever I gave them a hand signal and "SHOUT" when I did another (they got it well on their own later).  I then yelled a song repeatedly during all 45 minutes of this operation.  Here are the lyrics for Devo - Shout.  I made sure my body language was as threatening as I could be, but making sure to sing only in a monotone robot voice.  Some fled me, some kinda hid on the other side of a tree.  The guys really appreciated such an easy 10 dollars.

 

Shout shout

i'm shoutin' about the world outside
i'm shoutin' because you just can't hide
i'm shoutin' from the plain honest truth
i'm shoutin' there's so much we could do

Shout i'm shoutin' shoutin' shoutin'

I'm shoutin' because it's hard to believe
i'm shoutin' it's so easy to see
i'm shoutin' we're waitin' for a reply
i'm shoutin' for the very last time

shout well baby this one's for you
shout for everything that you do
shout until the battle is won
shout we'll live to fight on and on

and when you add it all together
and when you roll it in a ball
and when you watch another pyramid
as it's about to fall
remember you were there
remember if you care
all those who held their ground
when it all came down
said shout shout

shout it out

 

 Though I'm having trouble raising rent this month, I still think it was a fine investment. Next time we will use kazoos.

This is a pilot of a radio show I want to do.  It was VERY rough and didn't exactly stay on topic as much as I hope the final version to do.  I also didn't script my rants like I normally would have.  I'd like to hear feedback on what people think of this kinda format for a possible news show.

 

Thanks!

 

http://www.archive.org/download/ItCouldAlwaysBeWorse-Pilot/ItCouldAlwaysBeWorse-Pilot.mp3

 

RESOURCES

• Craftster - huge forum that covers all the crafts, including sewing
• BurdaStyle - the newest edition to the Burda sewing empire with free downloadable patterns and a community spirit
• Pattern Review - searchable database of patterns and the resulting creations and a forum for more advanced techniques
• SewStylish magazine - made by Threads but with a younger, more DIY focus to sewing. Each quarterly issue accompanies one Simplicity Pattern (sold separately) and tells you all the ways to pimp it out
• Burda World of Fashion magazine - A monthly magazine with 50-60 clothing patterns included in each issue. Very very fashion forward, but with very sparse instructions and no seam allowances so not for beginners
• Threads magazine - The ultimate advanced sewing magazine, which covers couture and professional techniques but has the tendency to be for an older audience

EQUIPMENT

• Sewing machine - you can sew without one, but you're going to be moving rather slowly. The old vintage machines were built like tanks, for women who sewed every day, not like the cheap plastic ones brought out for curtains every few years like they are now. Resist the urge to buy a gizmo machine with a thousand stitches - you really only need straight, zigzag, and buttonholes. Advice for beginners buying a machine
• iron - You absolutely MUST use an iron as you sew, pressing every sem as you go along. Pressing is not optional.
• Overlocker/serger - These aren't necessary, but they do make sewing stretchy fabrics a lot easier and make your garments look more professional inside. Have a look inside the shirt you're wearing - see how the edges are coverd in a big chain of threads? That's the work of a serger.
• Toolkit: hand needles, thread, scissors (to be ONLY used for fabric), seam ripper, assorted machine needles, chalk, assorted sewing machine feet, pins, pin cushion

PATTERNS

• Major Pattern Companies - Simplicity & New Look, Vogue, McCall's, Butterick, Burda
• Tips for following a dress pattern
• How to resize a pattern - very useful if your chosen pattern is slightly too big or slightly too small for you
• Good beginner patterns - Look for ones labeled "easy" and have a minimum of pieces. Stay away from stretchy or slippery fabrics to begin with, so try a pair of pajama bottoms in cotton or flannels, or an A-line skirt in cotton or twill as your first projects to build confidence.
• Do NOT buy patterns based on the size you wear in stores. You absolutely must measure yourself and buy a pattern based on your measurements. Yes, it will be a higher number than the size in RTW clothes, but no one's ever going to see that number anyway!

FABRIC

90% of the fabrics at your local JoAnn's and Hancock's are cheap, synthetic crap. Buy for you muslins if you want, but low quality fabric will make your garment look cheap, no matter how good your techniques. Listed below are some stores stocking high quality fabrics (note: some of these also sell cheap crap in addition to the nice stuff). The names of fabrics can be confusing at first so compare names against a list of fabric descriptions to help you out.

• Fabric.com
• Gorgeous Fabrics
• eQuilter
• Fabric Mart
• Wazoodle
• Vogue Fabrics

HAND SEWING

• Illustrated hand stitches - Shows you how to do the basic hand stitches. The hem, running, and backstitches will be the most commonly used - if you haven't got a sewing machine you should backstitch everywhere instead for the most strength.
• Sew on a button - if you take your button-less shirt to a dry cleaners again, I"m going to slap you. It takes under two minutes to fix.
• Darn a sock - Toes poking through? Here's how to sew it closed without getting a big lumpy line

TECHNIQUES

• Video: And easy, fly front zipper (like the kind you find on jeams and other trousers
• BurdaStyle How Tos - lots of step-by-step echniques for anything from making puffy sleeves to inserting pockets to making pleats
• How to Hem Jeans - This technique cleverly uses the original hem of the jeans but tucks a bit further up so the finished result is invisible
• Threads Tips & Tricks - huge list compiled by Threads magazine
• Fixing buttonhole mistakes - hosed up your buttonholes? Here's how to fix them.
• Make your own dressform - out of paper tape or duct tape to mimic your shape
• Sewing darts - all about darts and where to place them and when to change them

TUTORIALS / FREEBIES

• Make a lined, zippered pouch - an easy pouch to make that uses up scraps and gets you practicing on zippers
• Make a lined messenger bag - great for making anything from purses to manbags to shopping bags with a thousand variations
• Zipper pocket tutorial - fantastic for adding a zippered pocket pretty much anywhere on a bag or garment
• BurdaStyle patterns - loads of free clothing and home dec patterns to print out at home or at a copy shop
• Free Patterns for Clothing - Craftster-compiled list of links to freebies elsewhere including the ShowStudio designer ones from Alexander McQueen, Junya Watanabe, etc
• DIY Toy tutorials
• Quillow instructions - make a big ol' blanket that folds into a pillow
• Make a basic A-line skirt
• Make a sock monkey

KNITTING

The Basics aka Learn to Knit!

http://www.knittinghelp.com/ - This is the most awesome site. You honestly don't even need any others until you start doing some fancier stuff and even then she has most of that stuff covered. Simple instructions with videos that actually work!

Patterns Galore!

http://www.knitty.com - Online knitting magazine, everyone's favorite because it's not just old lady stuff!

http://www.knittingpatterncentral.com/ - Tons of links to patterns!

http://www.lionbrand.com/content-kn...tternIndex.html - You have to register to access these patterns, but they're still free.

http://knitting.about.com/ - The patterns here are more old lady, but there's a lot of help on here too. I personally love old lady patterns because I'm a bitter crone at heart so it doesn't bother me.

http://www.bevscountrycottage.com/b...ml#BABYsweaters - All kinds of baby poo poo. Some of it is really, really ugly. Knit and crochet patterns.

http://www.antiquepatternlibrary.org/completelist.htm - This is really cool! It's a bunch of antique knitting and crochet patterns. ALL THAT LACE

Knitting Communities

http://www.stitchnbitch.org/snb_groups.htm - List of knitting groups that meet IRL around the globe! There's also a fun series of books about knitting (and even one about crochet!) under the same name. P.S. we should start goon SnB meetings.

http://community.livejournal.com/punk_knitters/ - LJ knitting community, very inspiring because everyone always makes fun stuff and reminds me not to be a lazy rear end.

http://community.livejournal.com/20sknitters/ - Another fun LJ knitting community.

http://apps.facebook.com/stitchbook/ - A decent Facebook community, mostly links to knitty stuff it seems. It's not just about knit, there's a large database of crochet patterns too.

A great video podcast and forum to check out for sewing and other DIY fashion how-tos is at ThreadBanger's website.

Other resources include

• Sewing Guide
• Experts: Skye Estes

 

I've been finding a lot of real data games out there.  Especially for economic work and planning.  They use actual real-world real-time data and are used to simulate doing an actual job.  I couldn't find the right place for a book page in the games section so i'm gonna make my list here and someone can post it to the book after we got more.

 

http://www.investopedia.com/Default.aspx?viewed=1

(some java-based currency exchange simulator [cant find link]) 

I usually prefer silence when doing stupid labor but I find Aphex Twin, noise, and Daft Punk are very fine working bands.

If I didn't do the following.

 

Have a morning routine of checking my email and calander synchs and the like.

Use a PIM system like outlook, evolution, thunderbird, kontact, etc.

Make real use of the prioritization system.

Keep groups for contacts.

The i key on my keyboard is failing me and as I look over recent posts I find.... a lack of i's!  Great.

7am – Just inside the fine state of Mississippi at a sleezy gas station / diner

It's been 10 hours since we left my house in Indianapolis and my asshole burns with the fire of a thousand suns. One would think that club crackers and cheese and fresh fruit would make a comfortable snack for a long road but apparently not. I'm always worried of being the most inconvenient person in a group (though it rarely happens) and having to stop for the bathroom a lot is certainly a way to inconvenience a road trip. Mayhap the goddess herself is punishing me for overdosing my cats on milk before I left them to my house sitter for a week. I know how that bitch works sometimes and though I praise her... may she never darken my doorstep again. Amen.

The van is making a grinding noise now sometimes. I would hazard to guess that something is rubbing against the front left brake pad. Hopefully as we pull into a major city it busts into flame and we all get arrested for igniting some form of incendiary vehicle inside the limits of the town. I haven't had a ridiculous police experience for weeks and it feels about time. In all honesty I hope the vehicle fails soon if it is gonna so we can have time to find a replacement on craigslist for the trip back. The van is prolly worth enough in scrap to get us another shitty car or something.

Now that I'm in the south I've been enjoying the local Christian talk radio shows that play in the wee hours of the morning. Did you know that the federal reserve has the US divided into 10 regions? Well 10 nations is mentioned in revelations in THE BIBLE so you better watch the fuck out you sinners. Jesus knows how to do math and guess what. You + sin + 10 = WORLD WAR 3 : Jesus' Return. That's all the math a nigga need to know... ya know?

I'm pretty happy with my packing this trip. I've managed to boil myself down to one small suitcase and one backpack. Carry alone stuff is just my coat and 2 suit jackets. This gives me enough clothing and kit to function indefinitely in New Orleans. This is good for being in the whole “I wonder if the car is gonna start again when we get there” thing. We've also possibly found some working marketing gigs in town while we are here to help offset the cost of trip. There is even talk of a 'professional' product sample that will pay 1600USD after 4 days @ 8 hours. This would pay for the entire trip and leave behind a profit which would be a FANTASTIC state of affairs. I love free travel without having to smell bad.

Currently we only have one driver and he is sleeping in the van with the little squatter boys we found that wanted to come down this way as well. They may not have any interesting opinions | future plans | ideals | or supplies but at least they don't have enough money to evenly throw in on gas either! WHOOO! It's better than nothing I guess... which might as well be the squatter manifesto in one sentence. Have I mentioned how detestable I find the bulk of the heroin addicted self serving skilless squatter culture recently?

Hey kids! Want to tear down the 'system' that your parents and teachers love so much? Drop out! Run away! Never learn anything useful! If you never learn a useful skill then nobody can profit off of you! Bring the system down by living a life of decadence and refusing to focus. Don't worry if you are underage. Anybody would be PROUD to go into jail for harboring you... since YOU are such an amazing freedom fighter out to bring down THEIR 'system'.

ahrm....

Speaking of systems... apparently I can smoke tobacco inside a food establishment here. I had to take a step back and really let that sink in. A cigarette... inside... in a public place... It's been a while since I was somewhere that let a business decide if it should be smoking or not for itself. My goddess it might even be possible to hand out flyers and zines here without being arrested. I can't even imagine.

My recon of the city :New Orleans: was done somewhat hastily but apparently I know dozens of people there that I have never met. At least 2 collectives exist that I have never walked into and at least one infoshop. Since I have at least a week in town I really think I can hit them all while I'm here. It's been a while since I did agent work and I am more than eager to get at it.

The Empowerment is the most concise project I've ever worked with and it shows in my sales pitch. It's really nice to have a fall back point that is completely agreeable to myself AND is easy to explain to individuals. People generally approach things like The Empowerment as a vauge idea that can be easily disrupted with asking lots of questions and having nobody to reply with good answers. Though I can usually stand up for even the most.... fanciful.... of groups The Empowerment is a stalwart idea that really hasn't got any real holes. Self education and self empowerment to help a 'self' become a better human citizen... and thus make the average of the human race just that much better. Pfft. Theres room for everyone in that umbrella... even those you don't like.

I was considering recruiting a few Aryan Brotherhood guys onto the site a few months ago to see how they took to the site and the data on it. Technically I don't think there would be a problem with it according to Empowerment criteria and their entries into the ideapedia could only serve to create a stronger community of... well... everyone else on the site. I really liked that antienvironmentalism was listed in the ideapedia (though cynically) because it IS an idea that people do have and thus should be included sooner or later. I decided against this plan because the site hasn't got the actives to handle people who don't see the whole freedom of speech thing clearly and I would hate to see the first troll war on the site be racist in nature.

As I watch the diner drones carry out their day to day tasks of cleaning and moving things around (I wonder how much i'd have to bribe 'em to get that awesome metal stock pot...) I have to wonder how much longer citizens of the world will stay outside the 'loop' of Greater Humanity. Right now the legion of anonymous are declaring indefinate and concrete war on Scientology... couchsurfer networks are starting a university... and you can now search for sadness in New York city and find the geourl of someone who is sad right now. How much longer can we claim ignorance of the wider world around us in order to be comfortable? Cell phones are now aggressively thrown into the pockets of anyone who can sign a piece of paper and I expect to see an ultra powerful pocket PC of some kind with location and contextual awareness crammed down our throats more aggressively than even phones are. I expect to see it within 2 years actually. How funny is the statement “You don't find the news... the news finds you”? Not that funny I guess......

Speaking of aggressive news... how about the cease and desist order thing? So they can now declare these orders intellectual property and it is illegal to repost one if you get it or violate someones IP rights. Well isn't that just fucking QUAINT. I don't see how that works without requiring some kinda certified letter that states the agreement to whatever license they have on their document. Sure I get IP letters all the time... from places that I am an employee of and have a NonDisclosure Agreement with. I CERTAINLY don't consider correspondence with people I don't have an agreement with in some form or another binding in this way. I'm pretty sure we could power the country by hooking the founding fathers up to a dynamo so we could harvest the power of them spinning in their graves. Franklin alone could probably power most of the Eastern Seaboard.

I still have to pick up props for my time in the city. I will usually go to a dollar store of some kind and pick up 20 bucks worth of 'primer' props to use while initiating discourse with people. Cheap plastic toys and random books and things that are unexpected are general fare. If you walk up to a person and hand them a small plastic frog telling them “This is Frank and he CHOOSES you.”... well... you'll learn that persons' name within 5 minutes usually. You watch for eye dilation.....

I did NOT get my idea cards done in time for this operation which makes me QUITE sad. I may find printing on site somewhere that will suffice to create them for use but I doubt it. I had all kinds of interesting ideas for disrupting the social event “Mardi Gras” with things like fake corp sponsored scavenger hunts and things of that nature but alas... maybe next time. I DO have ONE thing that I started that may end with me having a small isolated audience to recruit into operations. It's a seeeeecret though. Shhhh.

I am going to piss into the Gulf Of Mexico this week finally. That only leaves the Lake Ontario and The Pacific and the major lakes out west as major bodies of water that Agent has not urinated into in N America. Small goals .. hundreds of small goals... Oh nature... how I love your boundless ability to compensate.

As for the empowerment zine I have decided on my initial target market. I have mapped out the bus stops for the major local and suburban high schools in Indianapolis and I plan to have a team of people hit all the bus stops they can in a day for one school a day. It has to appear casual and unplanned... just a bloke walking by the bus stop who happens to have a few odd pieces of literature on him. I'll be handing out the printed copies of the site in a zine cover. The zine cover has a very Mac look to it. Just a white piece of cardstock with the power symbol on the front and back. Hopefully at lunch a few people will notice that they aren't the only ones carrying that distinctive packet of paper and it inspires some discussion... and maybe some registrations! I did a deployment once following this process with middling success but again... the message is good and hopefully takes better than the “Fake Evil Corp of Brain Parasites” thing I usually do when I'm bored.

Speaking of! I found a new Warren Ellis comic called Doktor Sleepless and it's pretty fucking AWESOME as of #4. There is even a wiki for the cyberpunk world that he is unfolding over at www.doktorsleepless.com. For anyone who doesn't know about this guy... run do not walk and get yourself a copy of Transmetropolitan. It's the story of a cyberpunk Hunter S Thompson in comic book form. Yeah you know you wanna read it now. This guy is the tits because he is amazing at identifying to social faux paux and trends of the future before they happen. A small war between extreme body mod secessionists (modified to the point that they are their own new race as they argued it) and the local police (foolishness is how THEY argued it). A woman who makes a necklace out of aborted fetus' that she had removed from her and encapsulated into beads. We all know that having your head unfrozen a few hundred years later would cause culture shock to you... but Mr Ellis helps to see what kinds of things would exist that would be shocking to us poor low-tech mutha's from the early 21^st century. I also picked up a copy of “Fell” by the same guy. It is also pretty awesome but it's not really that cyberpunk so I'm not super sweating it though... it's good too. Nobody likes blind vengeance but everyone likes justice based vengeance. Like batman. Good ole batman.

Right now I am looking at a sign that seems to be selling me on the brand of eggs used at this place. The OmEGGa III Smart Egg is apparently an egg from naturally fed hens. I wonder what was so wrong with the OmEGGa I and II. I blame the Jews for suppressing the truth behind the failures and successes of the OmEGGA I I guess. According to what I read on the internet there isn't a thing in the world you can't blame on the Jews. Jews made the van we are traveling smell bad and also high gas prices. Ahh generic scapegoats... how much better you make me feel.

I have a personal scapegoat myself. It's Alberto Gonzoles. Who the fuck WAS that guy? He came like a whisper and left without a word (other than “I do not recall”). You think The Mayor talks about 9-11 too much? You should check out what old Albie has to say for himself during senate trials for authorizing dozens of illegal domestic spy programmes. This guy doesn't recall his own name apparently let alone what he did as ATTORNY GENERAL. So fuck blaming the jews mang... we got this guy Alberto and he makes a WAY better scapegoat. He needs to apologize for how rough gas station toilet paper is ASAP. Also he's a Mexican and we seem to have an anti-Mexican fetish brewing in the cockles of the nation these days.

Every single customer here is white and every single employee is black. What are the odds? There isn't an internet connection here or i'd hit the census and make an educated guess. I'd bet on Alberto's life that it's pretty goddamn low. I see 7 employees and 9 customers and lemme tell ya what... that's a longshot. I'm also going to point out that only one employee is male and there isn't a single female customer at the moment. It might be proximity to the interstate I guess......

So we lost a champion recently. There is this guy Jeremy Hammond who was one of the founders of hackthissite.org and an all around good guy. He's a bit of a sucker for the crimethinc stuff but that isn't really anything to hold against someone who is actually out trying to do things. The feds put him away for 2 years in a federal pen for hacking crimes that he claims at least probable deniability on and says he isn't guilty of. Either way he's in the poke now and I hate to see it. I called the people I know with contacts in that prison (chicago) in the hopes that I can get some strings pulled for him but I doubt it had an effect. His life is now boring and monotonous. I pray to the goddess to provide him the will to come out still willing and eager to fight the good fight of educating the people of the world in the use of tools that may save their lives. Wanna help?

Jeremy Hammond #18729-424

FCI Greenville

PO Box 5000

Greenville Il 62246

Write him please. Tell him a funny story.

I will never forget the day I met Mr Hammond. I was at a convergence making a general nuisance of myself and making fun of so called activists when a guy walked by me wearing a HOPE shirt. I let him walk by me and then followed him for a block. He had 2 guys flanking him on either side that looked an awful lot like 'buddies who will take a bullet' and the guy's head was swinging left and right like he was scanning for something. This kinda behavior makes me kinda stiff in the pants if YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN when I see it in the wild wild world.

So I roll up to this kid and throw out my hand and introduce myself to him. The look of confusion and almost fear in his face was priceless. I was at an anarchist convergence in a suit and tie and was COVERED in recording kit. I had 2 digital recorders plainly carried and a giant comical microphone in a holster on my arm. Turns out he was currently under investigation by the feds and was wary of agents. I can only IMAGINE how many alarm bells went off in his head at first sight! To this day I laugh about it to myself. For a second I thought his crew was gonna try and disappear me into an ally! Oh freedom fighters... how many times will one of you try and disappear me into an ally?

Still... in an effort to 'feel me out'... he was willing to hang out with me for hours and we had some really decent hardcore discussions about the state of the world and more importantly the state of what needs done. I'm pretty sure the 'not a federal agent' verdict came pretty fast though he may very well consider me a ? in his mind to this day. It's only paranoia until you hear a twig snap behind you.. then it's called foresight. He had a good head on his shoulders and certainly didn't seem interested in victimizing folks for personal political gain... which is something I am always worried about. In the end I found that I liked the guy and would try and offer assistance to his groups whenever I could. Sadly his groups generally (GENERALLY) suck assholes and aren't very easy to work with. Still... time time time.

I am saddened that he isn't around doing whatever he does with his time now but instead wasting by federal mandate. His story is in Hack This Zine #5 if you want to google yourself up some facts. That's all I have to say about that.

One nice thing about having printed out copies of the site is the ability to do real editorial work. The site is already the best zine I've ever seen. Sure it needs some work with layout and there are HUGENORMOUS gaps in the content but it's coming along. Way back when I first started talking with Alex one of the things I told him I've always wanted to see was a DIY encyclopedia and activist training manual. We agreed that such a resource would be “Awesome” and now we are finally beginning to see it starting to come about. This is a fantastic state of affairs and it serves to further inspire me to spend a week or two doing nothing but adding more content to the site. Now that I have a physical medium to see how it's all looking I can really see what content needs to be added and what entries that are already there consist entirely of stub material.

I don't know what I need to do to get more people adding content to the site. I'm pretty sure there is enough up to serve as an example to new users to see and follow suit with. Most of the people that I've brought to the site whom are qualified to add data choose not to out of security culture or some vauge want to watch and 'see what happens' before they jump into it. There are a lot of user nodes now but people just aren't adding content. I'm surprised that people don't even post ideas to the site. We all have ideas and they are generally easy to log.

The front page DOES have 135 links on it as of this writing. That IS too many links and a new user is going to be completely lost. I've had to point out the What's New button to most of the new users on the site which means it's not prevalent enough. I know that we are focusing on function over form at this moment but I'd go so far to say that the lack of form actually detracts from the function of the site as it sits. There really needs to be a 'wizard' for creating an account and adding things like ideas and tools to the system. As a non-coder I feel at a loss on what to do in order to help something like that along though. I was half tempted to create a flowchart of a possible user experience but I was afraid that it would get dusty on a shelf somewhere waiting for developers to start showing up on-site. To this day I still think we should just outsource our needs to something like www.rentacoder.com and just pay for it. It would get done post haste and at a very reasonable price. It's kinda contrary to the operational mindframe of the network though... but then again outsourcing is just another tool on the kitline. As a capitalist I of course don't see a problem with hiring specialists at reasonable rates when it comes to a job that needs done.

Another thing that I'm eager to see is the Empowerment Character Sheets. I feel that I could REALLY use these things for my job in the group. It is REALLY hard to get a new cluster of individuals together and create lists of their skills and hobbies and interests and ideas. Almost everyone claims that they HAVE no skills until you grill them with questions for a while. All kinds of really useful things can be found in the 0line kit of people with a little prodding. With the character sheets as a guide it shouldn't be too hard to create a survey / guide to filling out said sheet for new users. This would provide field agents a tool to help identify strong and weak points in a group as well as identify what projects already lie inside a groups scope of capability. The character sheets could also provide us our first line of user metrics' he help identify trends and patterns in the people that we find.

The system is starting to take form though! Having people go over the ideapedia and list the things they also feel strong about is pretty much the survey really..... it just isn't complete yet. Skillpedia is also pretty much the survey for skills. Maybe the character sheet should be a dynamic page that just has all the ideas and skills as options on a d20 style char sheet. When someone adds a new skill it'd add to the printable character sheet too. That's really a good way to get started on it...... hrmmmmm.

Once we have such character sheets we can start role playing through objectives and campaigns and missions in an entirely fictional 'as if' scenario. Just like a regular role playing game! I really hope that a concrete system of rolls and pulls isn't created to calculate successes and failures at doing things though because it just inspires people to view their 'characters' as twinker fodder to manipulate the math. Sure that might be a good thing (getting people to realize that they could 'twink' out themselves as well) but I'm pretty sure that it wouldn't work out that way. At least... not at first.

Our initial campaign setting could be fun. Call it Utopiaville and consider it a large nation of states. Each state is a completely perfect functioning and autonomous unique form of utopia and we could role play the meetings of representatives from each Utopia trying to solve a problem or whatever. That would be awfully fun and if each person playing could just write up their own utopia as they joined we'd have a cool tool for people to figure out what kinda society they wanna live in. We could do anything if we where willing to spend the time at it (sorry... I know that's a universal statement and really isn't needed in this paragraph). Utopiaville would make a fun optional zine wouldn't it?

Speaking of fun optional zines I had a zine idea the other day. I'm going to create a zine of hand flyers soon. It's going to be designed for people to rip pages out of it and affix them to walls | doors | etc. Pre made hilarious and informative propaganda posters. Eventually I'd like the pages to be printed on sticker materials of some kind. I've never seen such an 'activist sticker book zine' but I'd love to see one. Look at me... I'm full of ideas! Yeah yeah... I should log it on the ideapedia....... or is a sticker zine a medium and not to be mentioned in the idea and the idea of 'easy to use premade propaganda' should be posted on it's own to keep it modular? sigh I guess it doesn't matter yet.

We really need to get that chat room business started. We also really need to get everyone to share each others IM contact information with each other. Real time communication (phone IM chat etc) really isn't a bad thing in it's own regard. Sure most group real time discussions become single minded wastes of idle time but not ALL of them do. Even anonymous has gotten their shit together recently and declared never-ending war on Scientology. You just watch... there are going to be FIREWORKS over that one. I know that most of us have some IRC experience and it is almost NEVER good experience. Still... I am optimistic that WE can do BETTER than most in such endeavors.

4:10 pm Lowes Parking Lot 2-2-08

Our guides into New Orleans are idiots and I have begun to suspect they may be junkies as well. Constant requests for them to confirm the location of the safehouse in Nola where met with derision. As we drove into town and it became critical to know where we where going... they informed us that they had no idea and didn't have a way to get ahold of someone who DID know for a few hours. This was bad news for those of us who cared what the vehicle was doing as it crossed a mighty body of water on a very long bridge.

We picked up a quiet and well meaning older alcoholic gentleman who was hitchhiking and gave him a ride for 80ish miles and dropped him off as we entered the city. I think he was an alcoholic due to his coloration and the visible capilaries in his nose. About this time we began hearing a very worrysome grinding noise coming from the front of the van. I am pretty sure that something is rubbing against the tire... and it may be something to do with the break system.

We finally made it to the safe house and met the inhabitants. They are... sadly... a pair of crusty punk junkies but they seem reasonably trustworthy. The house is actually within a 30 minute walk to Burbon street and one block from the parade route. I took a shower and got ready while the rest of the team got settled in. We then walked to the parade route to take a look at the crowd.

The crusty crew kinda stood there grabbing things being thrown from the floats and huddled around each other in a small circle. I can't stand being with a group of people that ignores the existence of the THOUSANDS of people around them. It is not only unsafe... it is also selfish and inhuman. It didn't take long for me to want to wander off aimlessly.

Every suggestion made to 'doing something' is met with an endless stream of excuses as to why it is critically unsafe to do anything but stay at home. And do drugs of course. I headed south.

I procurred myself a 1/5^th of whiskey and went crowd watching. I saw a small fight incolving about a dozen young african american women in the street. About 10 girls chased this other girl down in the street and began lynching the fuck out of her. After she fell they kicked her repetedly. She actually fell next to a car with a poor frantic tourist of some kind inside. The kicks actually sent her partially underneath the car and the tourist paniced and started pulling off. I was positive the girl was going to be run over but it didn't happen.

When the incident began I started counting in my head. By the time I got to 11 there was a military helichopter overhead and 3 squad cars en route. Foot police and military people where on site and questinging people by count 20. I had a feeling that reaction time was going to be quick but I never guessed that the incident would be identified and dispatched on site THAT fast. I later found out how though. There was a network of cherry pickers put up with recon agents inside. They are.. I am sure.. connected to a dispatch office and are loaded up with telescopic equipment of some kind or another.

Speaking of military... there are police cars labeled Military Police all over town on patrolls. It is really odd to see full camo military agents in police cars cruising around looking for things that need their attention. I heard stories in my travells of the military police keeping the local police in check and ensuring they don't randomly shoot or beat up someone for no good reason. Apparently the police here have been working excessive amounts of overtime for weeks before mardi gras and thusly are 'grumpy'. Grumpy police are known for making bad things happen.

I was then YELLED AT BY A MAN CARRYING A CROSS. I shit you not. There were maybe 50 people out in the crowd with signs and bullhorns and things all demanding the attentions of the crowd. They where decrying the foul behaviors and habits of the locals as well as those 'just visiting'. First off..who the fuck are THOSE guys? Second off.. if your 'flock' are standing between an official Hustler Strip joint / some cheap liqour / and you I have a feeling that someone has already decided that their idea of right and wrong allow them free range of motion. Then a man called my friend (Mr Joell) a fool via megaphone. Location noted: Operation Planning commenced.

We found much flesh available for sale.. as well as gallons by gallons of overpriced watered-down liqours and beers to quench the thirst. Many people who certainly do not concern themselves with sustainable and value-oriented purchases where making a ring around vendors of all kinds and thrusting money at them in the hopes that much joy would be bestowed apon them.

After way made it through Gay Town we stopped on a street corner and began questioning people about their occupation. It is amazing to me that there is NO industry seen in the city but service industry. To confirm this we tried to find locals and ask them what kind of work they did. Everyone was either service or construction. Then we got picked up by someone!

Joells dad came by and gave us a what-for. He took us to one of the local group meetings. Turns out socioculturally there are clans of a sort for each region and these clans are much like social fraternities. This fraternity seemed to consist entirely of people who lost almost everything during The Storm... including their bar. To respond they squatted this bar and used generators to turn on the lights. There was much drinking in this crowd of 40somethings and the great gnashing of middle aged mandibles for more of the female persuasion.

People started shucking oysters out back like they had brought some chips and dip to a party which was VERY neat. I saw a new king and queen crowned for this group which apperntly is a social thing that happens once a year and was very neat. I endevored to have “A cheers with everyone here” and sadly was carrying a bottle of pure whiskey. Unfortunately I had drinks with the same few people over and over for a while and ended up a complete sloppy mess. Things happened then of some kind and poof I was sleeping on a floor. Uhhhh. Yes.

The next morning brought a warmer day full of promise and excitement. The hosts all where taking off for their jobs and what not and wanted to find some lunch. Because we are idiots we ended up taking around for a total of 6 and a half hours to return from our lunch run. In the end I had lots of see food. I had giant shrimp and full octopods and full crabs and all kinds of weird things on my plate. I made a firing range on my table out of straws and lined all them sea insects all up so that I could stare into their dead black eyes. The crab and the shrimp tried to convey a desperate need to be given a respectful death by staring me down. The oyster was communicating from beyond the grave telepathically with me trying to get me to go for the crab first because it REALLY hated that crab. With a mighty cry I raised a small hammerything down apon the crabs' back plate over and over again. The people around me seemed to not enjoy my victory over this foolish crab but they could... of course... eat my asshole. Guess what sucks about eating a whole crab. Just guess. Got it? I could NOT figure out what the fuck I was supposed to eat in there. I wasn't interested in the organs and odd colored sacks that sat nestled inside the now destroyed protective shell. Where was the MEAT? It can't be in the tiny gimp legs... it surely isn't the yellow organ sack. WHAT THE FUCK? So I ate double of everything else that once was alive and now was dead.

Now that we knew how to accidentily take a toll bridge twice somehow and what roads you should NEVER try and go down we made it back to HQ. I went with one of the local junkies to a media temple and found a copy of Jello Biafa's new spoken word album (!!!) and came back to the house. We then started walking. We walked and walked and walked for EVER. I'm talking like... fuck... 14 hours of walking maybe? It was a fuckton. I saw 4 semi-naked women clog the foot traffic in a street for 2 hours with their gyrations. The crowd had more semi-naked women than that balcony had and yet all traffic for thousands of people completely died. Idiots.

Bourbon Street is a lot like a strip mall only they serve liqour and don't card. I saw dozens if not hundreds of high school age kids walking into strip clubs with large alcoholic drinks in their hands. Personally I think that this is fantastic because it will ensure that the high school girls won't hold the exceptional power of “I could POSSIBLY show you some boob if you jump through hoops for me” for 'em. Once you've gotten used to how lackadaisical sexual encounters and the human body are thrown around as an adult the seemingly never ending prudishness of the late teens really doesn't feel so bad. No 18 year old high school senior felt he was 'never going to get laid' after a night on Bourbon Street during the donkey humping disaster that is Mardi Gras.

After fighting through this god awful still-standing mosh pit of drunk dumbshits (message: I'm gonna puke!) we made it back to Gay Town. Here I met up with a guy in a Che shirt and asked him what Che did that was worth a damn. Turns out the answer really is “Was a socialist and failed”. Martyrdom is funny to me and if Che had WON THE DAY then we'd have shittons of shirts with Castro on them. After I jack jawed with Che-man for a while I continued walking on to where one of my hosts bartended. The bar was almost empty because it was off the beaten path and everyone was too tired from walking (we where rollin' 4 deep) to enjoy themselves.

One of the crusty kids had gotten himself too drunk for usefulness by this time and began starting fights with random folks and causing trouble wherever he could. We got a call from one of the other hosts stating that she was walking home later and would love an escort. We of course jumped up at the opportunity to have a mission and began walking (walkin walking) towards her employment location. She works at a swingers club that is completely unmarked and in-cog-nito. While there the drunk crusty walked through a black guy who turned around.. spat on his back.. and reached inside his hoodie for a gun. He was too far ahead of me to get to him in time and I held my breath... and one of that guy's friends pulled him away. 'Ole crusty never realized how close he was at that moment. Later though as we waited outside the swingers club crusty tripped a tourist intentionally to be a dick and the guy dropped him. One solid and sturdy punch to the face and he collapsed right there in the middle of the street. We drug him a few meters and propped him up against a wall and he came to just a few minutes later unsure why his face hurt.

The junkie girl got off work.. didn't say hi to us.. and we walked her home. We walked forfucking ever. We got back to the house and I sat down outside to have a smoke. That's when I saw a man firebomb a corner grocery shop about a block away from me. From the fa-WHOOMP sound and how quickly I saw flames and how quickly they disappeared I assume it was a liquid bomb like a molotov using gasoline. Gasoline bombs are so goddamn horrid I'm surprised the guy didn't burn himself up. We called 9-1-1 and the fine firemen in the area responded in 4 and a half minutes. The police didn't want a statement from us because 'it isn't my job to care about that'.

I watched the building burn for a while and the ring of spectators slavering for a chance to loot the shop got bigger and bigger for a while and decided I wanted to get some sleep. Did they loot? Hell yes they did. Later I found out that the owner tried to bribe the cops 30/hr to watch the place for a day and they refused. That morning an arson detective showed up at the host house and accused one of the junkies of setting the building on fire... THEY HAD VIDEO TAPE. The junkie told him to fuck off. The police also called Joell (who called 9-1-1) that morning to tell him that his business was robbed during the night and left it as voice mail. Turns out that there is an automated message at the end of all NOPD calls asking for people to sign up and be police officers. There are huge bonuses including... from the sounds of it... relocation and housing compensation bonuses. (idea: cop collective)

Apparently the simplest of note taking abilities aren't being used by the NOPD. If you have a case file with a few phone numbers on it you should probably label them 'witness' and 'property owner' in a way that is reliable. That isn't rocket science and it was absurd to receive a call that should have gone to the business owner. I mean really WTF. Then again if they are expecting people who call the police to BE the police... and to be recruited by a recorded message... then I doubt they have very high standards.

 

Start of more summarized history:

Walked through bourbon street. Made it to Espenade and met with Joells dad. There we went to a party at a squatted bar and had a great time.

idea: pretend to be a member/alumni of a fraternity

idea: start a hacker defense network chapter

message: crusty squatter punks can use technology too

medium: tape graffiti

idea: create vacation packs for travelers

idea: patrol your neighborhood

group model: guardian angels

skill: scanlation

tool: phone unlocking guide

medium: prisioner letters

SKLL: TRIPLE a CAR TOW

I know it's kinda silly but I'm actually gonna miss my IBM M Pro machine.  I'm selling it today as part of my "Great Liquidation Sale of 2008!" and I'm *sniff* gonna miss it.

 

It's a giant machine, i'm pretty sure it's a 4u standard rackmount actually.  It's gotta geforce 2 and a matrox g450 dualie for video, which means it controls 3 monitors at this moment.  Dual 1.5 xeons and 3gb 800mhz rdram is what's under the hood, scsi 160 is the hard drive interface.  This machine has served me VERY well, has only been restarted a half dozen times or so since I got it, and operates almost silently.

 

I don't usually get attached to kit but when something just works so consistantly... well... I hope my next primary machine is as good for reliability sake. 

Oh yeah baby.  I gotta good sized box going on right here.

You know, for things that you wanna do 'for the shit of it' to 'see what it turns into'.  Like my current campaign.

 

I am working on a corp dive, so all mah time is chewed the fuck up.  As I spend all my time in front of a corptop I have been looking for a distraction that wouldn't violate any social codes of conduct.  So, i found a game.  www.astroempires.com is what it's called.  It's what I call a 'spreadsheet game'. 

 

It's a browser game which means there is no install, and it's a game that only takes a few minutes at a time.  You queue shit up and wait for 12 hours for it to be done.  Great for the alt-tabber when his eyes glaze the fuck up from propaganda.

 

So of course I got a half dozen of teh crew up in dat shit, c42 crew whaddup, and now we're working on tools.  You know, shit like 'multiuser battle maps' and 'training guides' and 'simulation tools'.  Check and check!  So now it's all about orginizational communication.

 

Bitches just can't communicate, it's how we where raised or something.  Personally, I blame japan for a lot of it.  Japan and wikipedia.  This thing is pretty clear cut.  A few collaberative spreadsheets is all that ya need to get a crew of people to dominate an area of a game like this.  Being able to think out the lines of comms needed to keep everything in check and making sure all lines are redundant should be second nature to our modern asses.

 

BUT IT'S NOT. 

 

And it's not just this game, of course.  It's everything.  And it's because we don't practice it 'just cause'.  

 

Eat your eyes people, eat your eyes. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_occupations

Bricklaying

Silkscreening

hacking

glass etching

glass blowing

house framing

architectural design

wood burning

graphic design

shelf building

furniture making

painting

plumbing work

building and replacing electrical wiring systems

small engine repair

video editing

audio editing

automotive upkeep

building model planes and cars

basic and intermediate algebra

radio host

DJing

metalworking

cooking

sewing and knitting

tech of a million kinds

sexual intercourse

POS system operation

machinist

tool and die

sneaking

fashion designer

retail sales

animal husbandry

writer / writing

propagandist

editor

proof reader

desktop publishing

printmaking

astronavigation

navigator

game designer

3d modeler

programmer

developer

project manager

market manager

researcher

babysitter / child care specialist

genetic engineer

martial artist

instructor

camera operator

photographer

internet moderator

news reporting

fact checking

secretary

law enforcement

legal advising

 

 

 

Here are some ideas for skills to document. I will add more.

 

Remember, to start with, don't worry about adding the actual data (though I'm not saying you shouldn't!). Just write a few paragraphs about when that skill is useful, what skills might be related, tools required. Pretty much anything you can find.

 

Have fun, and there are thousands more!

Aaron from Titus Andronicus.

    quote:

    LUCIUS. Art thou not sorry for these heinous deeds?

    AARON. Ay, that I had not done a thousand more.
    Even now I curse the day- and yet, I think,
    Few come within the compass of my curse-
    Wherein I did not some notorious ill;
    As kill a man, or else devise his death;
    Ravish a maid, or plot the way to do it;
    Accuse some innocent, and forswear myself;
    Set deadly enmity between two friends;
    Make poor men's cattle break their necks;
    Set fire on barns and hay-stacks in the night,
    And bid the owners quench them with their tears.
    Oft have I digg'd up dead men from their graves,
    And set them upright at their dear friends' door
    Even when their sorrows almost was forgot,
    And on their skins, as on the bark of trees,
    Have with my knife carved in Roman letters
    'Let not your sorrow die, though I am dead.'
    Tut, I have done a thousand dreadful things
    As willingly as one would kill a fly;
    And nothing grieves me heartily indeed
    But that I cannot do ten thousand more.

I'm going to start writing this on request of lxpk after a skype convo I had with him.  I think I was drunk as shit at the time, so I forgot about it.

 

Empowerment, self education, and teaching people to be more effective in the world.  This is all good stuff right?  Sure it is, but we all know that the target market is a small percentage of the population in North America.  I assume that 'we' are generally moral creatures who desire to see the world take steps forward constantly, I also assume that 'we' are eager to see steps forward in human social evolution no matter how small.  'We' assume that we are the ONLY market though, and this is a flaw that will sooner or later make itself known.

 

I am into metacommunities.  Consider me an anthropoligist of digital communities if you would.  I am not going to get into my online resume here, but those that know me have a few clues as to how active I am.  I use sock puppets, misdirection, and tons of other somewhat grey tactics to further my research.  I am comfortable with this because, again, I always hold to my moral structure.

 

Internet Champions

The internet may very well be controlled by some 20 year old with 5000 AIM names.   This is a bit absurd, sure, but it's possible.  What I call IC's are in constant comms with each other via IRC and IM clients.  These people have a LOT of sway over the larger web communities.  Groups like wikipedia, digg, and 4chan all have IC networks that generally dictate the comings and goings under their purveiw.  Internet Champions hunt for the 'next big thing' constantly, and they try to direct the flow of it's meme into the social fabric of the web.   Internet Champions may be cold, but they are also by definition following their own moral code.

 

Internet Kings

 Do you remember Stile project, the MSN roulette game, and rotton.com?  The internet was once, for many users, all about the shock of it all.  Hundreds of thousands of people stared longingly into the glow of their CRT screens and summoned forth something more shocking and terrible than the last.  Virgin Kings where sick of regular sex and got into fetishisms before they ever had a sexually active lifestyle.  Before they turned 18, Kings became the most desensitized creatures on the planet.  Human suffering, pain, and uselessness became entertainment for them.  Many of them where also on psycotropic medications.