Friday, April 21, 2006

People shit me

I was discussing with Anton and Cody what TVFR will become we get around to a name change and how subversive it might become.

Being the irretrievable mischief-maker that I am, I have an itchy trigger finger to take on the biggest of the lot and make a mockery of everything they do. Fox News wants a good hard arsefucking and an energetic Crew would be perfect to do it.

The old dragon Murdoch - whose mother I've actually met - couldn't possibly expect sympathy from any crowd for taking on a bunch of teenagers who managed to upstage him. Anyway, I checked out Virgin News and almost fell into a coma, so I poked my nose over to the Fox News website and got smacked in the eye by the continuing saga of Justin Berry.

It made me cry. No, I mean really. For like 20 minutes and there'll be more later.

The whole sorry story is just one great big fuckoff. It's Stephen Stayner on steroids kind of fuckoff. Don't even intimate to me you've never heard of either of those kids, that would really get up my nose in a bad way. A really bad way. A not joking kind of really bad way. You've all heard of Gandhi, he made his decisions as an adult. Him getting a bullet turned him into a modern day Jesus. I'm talking about kids who suffered worse than he did and had no choice in the matter. Kids whose stories make Gandhi's life look like a picnic.

The last two days have been bizarre.

First, that interminable dickhead cleo, handmaiden of all that's inane, fluffy and intellectually void, starts poking fun because I was made an AM in a group started a few weeks ago by some English kids who found me being my usual self in a comm I've been around for 3 or 4 years. Three days the group was going before the filth got in and made things uncomfortable for them. The owner talked to me about it and when I confirmed what they were already feeling, they booted him and made me an AM. I've got a sneaking suspicion its crept back in under another nick so I've put the spotlight on him.

Just like I had to protect PA from plague's fury last week, I'm never going to sit by and allow some filthy slimeball to get fresh with those kids. I set the thing to send me all messages as emails so there's no hiding if anyone has a shot at them and I'll boot them in a heartbeat without word or warning. No fuss, no fanfare, just get out.

To make my position clear to this person, I had to word it without putting it in black and white, that I will protect those kids as much as humanly possible from even the hint of impropriety. I had to hint all around it in order not to come across as patronising to them whilst still being adamant with the individual in question. Basically, put up or shut up and get out. I was congratulated on my effort by one of the other members who said:

"Very nicely put! If I am ever sentenced to "Tact Management Rehabilitation" class, will you be my tutor?"

Cheri weighed in with her efforts, not even worth the proverbial two cents, and I got wind of that via Will. She had a shot at me for something of which I knew absolutely nothing then hinted that I should be having nothing to do with young people. TVFR wouldn't exist without at least one young person. What it's going to become in a couple of weeks won't be created without more. I will demonstrate to anyone with a pulse and more than one brain cell just of what 'young people' are capable - and things like her and cleo can ooze with envy and malevolence as much as they like.

Codemeister came to my rescue today, bless him. I got bent out of shape in the middle of what I was doing and he just happened to catch me imploding, put his foot down and gave it to me straight. There are still one or two issues which for me, preclude objectivity. He's abundantly aware of what they are and he basically told me to stop being a prat. Anton probably would have, but he had Laura coming over to his place and neither Cody nor I mentioned anything to him, the better to preserve his good mood. Better coming from Cody though, Anton's a fucking bastard when he's pissed off. Ain't no time for sympathy and biscuits there, oh no. He would have laughed and made it the joke of the week. (You can see why I like him so well.)

Moving on, I got an anonymous email today asking me how I go about taking down child porn websites. So for anyone who's interested, here's how I do it:

I utilise the services of iwf.org.uk and the FBI's internet adjunct, ic3.gov. Why the two sites? Because inter-service rivalry is alive and well. If I reported a site to one or the other, it would sit there for months until somebody got around to doing something about it. I found that out the hard way. By reporting it to both sites, and telling both I've reported it to their competition, they fall all over themselves to claim victory in the shutting down of yet another vile example of the depths to which filth will operate. See? Method people, method.

I stopped counting somewhere in the 40s for the number of sites I've had them shut down. The novelty wears off when you realise the more you shut down, the more that spring up and the genuine ones are harder to find and they're more refined about how they share and spread their disease. The only upside - if you can call it that - is what I find now means I don't have to see what's going on, it's all links which just somehow magically find their way into the loving arms of the FBI.

I also got a hugely encouraging email from Republican Senator of Massachusetts, Scott Brown in some perennial battle he's going to have with the MA chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union's Carol Rose over the sex offender register in that state. To put it in a nutshell, I gave him ammunition he can use and I gave her a shot of how's your uncle. He replied, she didn't. So I sent Mr Brown a copy of the email I sent to Ms Rose - advising him of the fact she hadn't responded. (And still hasn't.)

Diddums, do I ask tough questions and present immutable evidence? How diabolically inconsiderate of me. Carol hunny, get fucked the hard way. Child victims may not have a voice you can hear, but I sure as shit have one and you better listen because if I get really pissed off, I'm the sort who'll plaster your squalid little organisation's Boston branch all over the place. 99 issues out of a hundred, I couldn't give a damn about but this the THE one about which you won't have me silent for love or money.

Fair and balanced? In your eye, bitch. Back off the register.


Other things have accorded me a bit of gruntage in the last couple of days but having typed them twice and deleted them - just to compare, you understand - I decided it was a degree of self-indulgence in which even I can't bask.

Besides which, despite this whole rampage of self indulgence, I'm still more than conscious of the agony upon which it is based. To add my personal grievance to what sparked this update just seems vulgar and insensitive in the extreme.

*sigh* I should have just listened to Anton. Those kids just know.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

OMG Update WTF!

Well, I got my first email response from a non-Australian politician today. The joy of that is I haven't done any research at all to which side of the political spectrum he belongs, we're talking about my favourite subject and we're essentially on the same side.

I know after discovering the filth's blog that I promised to keep this one updated more regularly than in the past - I'd hate to disappoint my readership of two :/ - but the fact is, I've been doing more research than I normally do and writing stuff to which I'm not really accustomed to writing. (Acute absense of swearing, in other words.)

I've been keeping tabs elsewhere and getting involved in other matters, so it's not like my overall activity level has declined, it's just been directed elsewhere.

I get the distinct impression Anton's avoiding me because he hasn't had time to do his updatage of TVFR. Poor kid. I totally understand he's got school commitments to worry about and it's better for both our sakes he directs his energies there rather than on TVFR. TVFR will wait, his future will be on him before he knows it and he won't have wanted to have squandered his time on a bit of fun at the expense of that future.

I miss him though.

Strangely enough, I'm missing Sarah too. Haven't heard from her for a week now and since she used to occupy what was my quiet time of an evening, I've actually been a tad uninspired this week just past.

Maybe it's because in the preceding week, we talked for about 40 hours and she feels there's nothing left to discuss. Who knows.

Sean has finally expressed an interest in taking photos for autoboston.com but since my last message to him, he's gone awol as well. I even gave him ideas and examples of the sort of pics I can use for the blog.

I haven't made up my mind yet whether I'd use his work or Caleb's to fill the void I'm planning to create at TVFR too. On one hand, I feel like I owe it to Caleb, but I haven't asked how interested he'd be to get involved. On the other hand, Sean is more popular than a Coke and fries in his neck of the woods and passing up the opportunity to get that much of a fanbase to boost TVFR would be insane. Sean's work really is that good, and he just oozes charisma. It's a bitch because I'm also very fond of Caleb and I know if he agreed to do something for me, he would neither keep me waiting nor give me the runaround. Their work would be of comparable quality too.

If I take the objective view, I'd have to go with Sean for autoboston.com and Caleb for TVFR. If Sean took an interest in TVFR, then I'd find a way they could both get involved. If Caleb took an interest in autoboston.com, I'd have to come up with specific requirements for him, because he's not local to the Boston area.

Deary me, the intricacies of running active blogs all over the place.. I don't know.

Cody's music is contagious. First listening I always think 'meh, nothing special' but listen to it twice and it becomes irresistible. I haven't made up my mind yet just what that's all about.

Had a couple of hours conversation with Seth the other day. I love those kids so much. Every time I talk to them, they come up with some unreal little nugget of information which just hits me in the eye like a javelin.

Chris is even starting to demonstrate that uncanny habit of knowing what I'm about to say before I say it. Am I that predictable or is he getting that scary?

Whoever that woman in Adelaide is got me the other day too. I swear I will never understand the female of the species. You don't hear from them for weeks then all of a sudden you're talking like you went to the same party just the day before. We were talking for ages and I can't even remember what we talked about, except that it didn't drag on or get that strained sort of aspect about it when someone breaks an uncomfortable silence by saying something stupidly banal like "So, you have a blog somewhere..."

The only ones I can talk to for any length of time are the ones who don't try to get into my head or smother me with compliments. It didn't occur to me the whole time we were talking that I don't even know her name.

Someone should make a movie about it.

"The Name of the Prose."

(So sue me.)