Fabricated Reality

What happens when we die? No one really knows, but now we all know where are Myspace pages are headed.
As if Myspace hasn't been getting enough press lately, I stumbled across this rather macabre piece developing in the world web we like to call wide www.mydeathspace.com, a nice, developing, catalog of the deceased of whom were faithful Myspacers at one time or another.
I understood the allure of Myspace from the very beginning and never have really questioned the success of it, but I could never have imagined all the offshoots that would develop from it (not to mention all the re-occurring media attention). Immediately after the I saw the Taylor Behl story and profile on the evening news, I wondered how the deceased' profiles would ever be shut down and who would decide and investigate who was actually gone for good in these cases? (In essence, who would report the "dead users" list to Tom?) I guess no one does and the profiles don't ever get erased (save for the special ones that are offensive or entail cases under investigation). Although even that seems totally arbitrary as well- who's profile gets removed and who's does not. Some of them just change to a generic format of total fiction.

Jacob Robida was an angry 17 year old, who last February, went into a Massachusetts gay bar and made headlines for attacking patrons with a hatchet. His profile was extremely revealing in his lifestyle of misdirected anger and hatred. He was also a Juggalo, of which he was very proud. Now, the same profile looks like this. Notice all his generic friends and his fake hometown and ridiculous comments. Who on Earth takes the time to make such cover ups? Given that they are probably computer generated comments and people, it really makes you question Myspace and what it is; what is real and what is fake?

I guess that at the bottom of everything, nothing ever dies here in web world, and we are going to have to live with that. I just found out the other day that the only way to really make your Myspace profile "private" is to be listed as underage. For those of use who thought it would be neat to create our own, unchangeable URLs, we're stuck-uncovered; as far as I can see, or at least until we can find the time (or codes) to make ourselves generic fabrications.

fair weather

the weather is looking good for the northern area of virginia...

this weekend is gonna be a trip.
alexandria and dc are destinations.
skateboarding is the itinerary.
well wishers are welcome.
documentation is certain.

FCKNG AWSM

jason dill sure thinks he is.
www.fuckingawesome.net coming soon?

Bobby Parker is funny.

Clickity.click.click from your machine, here for a fun chimp pimp, "monk email" from my good friend Bobby P.

*Disclaimer, this will only be found half as funny if you don't already know Bobby Parker.

life in the N.

BLOGGING, i wish i was; i just can't find the right frame, the right frame of mind for writing these times, i just sit and watch it go by, nonchalantly, not writing much at all, i guess i could try, it might look something like this...

i guess its that i just get so overwhelmed and i'm the only one to blame. i try to do so many things at once and then i get stopped up, and clogged, like in traffic, only not exactly. i think, i wish, and i admire and i daydream and my grand schemes get all tangled and twisted downside up and the time doesn't care. it neither stops nor slows, but just stares (and follows); maybe my mind just atrophies, in a certain kind of way, i am ineffectually trying to explain. i guess i just sit and watch it all go by, in a figurative sense, as i previously mentioned --though i've heard it said that the happiest of men "live life in the present" and nowhere else, maybe that is what i have been up to for all these passing days, "presently living." that i can say. i have been living most delightfully in the present. there is one nagging factor of this (for some of us) and that is this badgering idea of having or creating something to show for time spent; as a sort of validation, or for deeper relection or comprehension (i'm afraid i lost myself here). . . @#$(@^&("oh well. whatever nevermind.")%$&#*
oh, this damn life, in its classic contradictions and neverending commonplace feelings and psychic ills to affect us all, always.
ha!

views

I am gonna miss this place (click on pictures for BIGGERness).

Punk in Drublic

Last night outside at a bar on Colley Ave, this drunk guy who obviously was in the Navy,

was being so ridiculous and drunk in public it was incredible (he told the waitress she had a "fat ass," which ultimately got him kicked out). He had been taking shot after shot with his friends, and harassing the girl he was with all night (you can hear her in the background of the short video below).
These girls were pretty shocked and getting a kick out of his antics as well...


Here's a quick video I shot of Rachel trying to make a phone call when this guy was around. He kept trying to spell West Virginia, and Alabama, for reasons unknown. He was really getting obnoxious at this point...

--------

A "telos" (from the Greek word for "end", "purpose" or "goal") is an end or purpose, in a fairly constrained sense used by philosophers such as Aristotle. It is the root of the term "teleology," roughly the study of purposiveness, or the study of objects with a view to their aims, purposes, or intentions. Teleology figures centrally in Aristotle's biology and in his theory of causes. It is central to nearly all philosophical theories of history, such as those of Hegel and Marx. One running debate in contemporary philosophy of biology is to what extent teleological language (as in, the "purposes" of various organs or life-processes) is unavoidable, or is simply a short-hand for ideas that can ultimately be spelled out non-teleologically. Philosophy of action also makes essential use of teleological vocabulary: on Davidson's account, an action is just something an agent does with an intention--that is, looking forward to some end to be achieved by the action.
-from WIKIpedia.

o

Friday

On Friday night, Rachel and I attended an interesting interpretation of history. Clay Jenkinson, host of the Thomas Jefferson Hour on NPR, took one of the most famous love letters written by Thomas Jefferson and cast it into the form of a dialogue between Jefferson and a European painter named Maria Cosway. For those interested, you can read the entire letter Jefferson wrote, an internal dialogue, arguing his "head" over his "heart", here.
*The performance would have cost us each $36 but once again, our "student IDs" got us in for $20!

Cartoons

This 'No Child Left Behind' thing has really gotten out of control.


Today I found myself looking at the New Yorker Cartoon Caption contest online and I immediately came up for something for the above cartoon. I rarely look at the site and even less often do I feel I have something good to say, but today i did, and I sent it in. SO, on APRIL 17, 2006 please go to the website here to vote for the finalists for this cartoon (assuming I make it that far).

Alexandre Orion is an artist.

Originally uploaded by swyphs.

Today on my friends Flickr page I followed a clicky to this guy named Alexandre Orion's webpage (not the guy in the picture above-I dont even know who that is). Alexander appears to be an artist/photographer. He is 27 years old, or so we're told. He appears to be of Brazilian descent. He has really interesting content on his www.page. Explore more here. clink. clink.

(be patient, its flashy).

time check

Tonight, (well Wednesday, early morn) at two minutes and three seconds after 1:00 in the morning, the time and date will be 01:02:03 04/05/06
Somebody take a picture; this will never happen again.

mission accomplished.

Talk of the wind and the rain and how fast the springtime came.
Without warn, in an instant, more like a cloud than a season.
Nothing anything anyone can say or do to stop the change.

Well, I’m down to the wire of sorts, the final day of March. With spring here, and temperatures in Norfolk reaching the 70's daily, hopefully I will be spending more time outdoors and less time online (though you can't bet on the weather around here). I intend to still write and keep up, though not with dailies as I have been. I have to say I would recommend the daily posts, “shouts, and murmurs” for a month, to anyone, if not for anything more than a mere challenge against oneself in provoking industry. It forces you to confront your own creativity and production for what it might be worth, and what might be found.
That’s all I have for now.
Welcome April, blue skies, open arms.

one thought.

When the heavy, pale, fog lifted this morning, the following question found it's way into my mind again...
"If Jack Kerouac had the Internet, would Jack Kerouac have become the Jack Kerouac?"

Words of wisdom...

from renowned psychologist, Carl Jung

"Unfortunately there can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a Shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If an inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected and is liable to burst forth suddenly in a moment of unawareness. At all events, it forms an unconscious snag, thwarting our most well-meant intentions." (Psychology and Religion)

photo booth

A poe.m.

This is a poem by somebody else; a master of the English language.
I think it is magnificent.
A poem is inspiration {for living}.

Bei Hennef

The little river twittering in the twilight,
The wan, wondering look of the pale sky,
This is almost bliss.

And everything shut up and gone to sleep,
All the troubles and anxieties and pain
Gone under the twilight.

Only the twilight now, and the soft "Sh!" of the river
That will last for ever.

And at last I know my love for you is here;
I can see it all, it is whole like the twilight,
It is large, so large, I could not see it before,
Because of the little lights and flickers and interruptions,
Troubles, anxieties and pains.

You are the call and I am the answer,
You are the wish, and I the fulfilment,
You are the night, and I the day.
What else - it is perfect enough.
It is perfectly complete,
You and I,
What more-?

Strange, how we suffer in spite of this.



-DH Lawrence

Cruzers

A Karoke bar at 12:45pm on a Saturday night?

No better place to be.

Light my fire.

"Carry that weight"

Chris Bliss is truly amazing, watch this whole clip and understand why.
(Thanks to Rachel's mom.)