Saturday, March 29, 2008

Internet Griefers Cause Misery on Epilepsy Site

Now on wired.com

http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2008/03/epilepsy

The picture is of someone extremely special to me, and she has epilepsy. The salient and important facts of this matter are that forums and products on the Internet that cater to epileptic people should really take precautions that these sorts of events cannot occur so readily. There are more boards out there.

Also, these people who did this aren't just cretinous brats, they're flaming twits whom with I will not be sympathetic if they get caught and charged with assault and intent to cause harm.

Friday, March 14, 2008

Release of Mill Avenue Vexations Cranes

It's that time again! Another booklet has been published by Mill Avenue Vexations. This time something to cool the hearts of everyone who has been staring up at the now-constructing Centerpointe Towers and wondering what's going to happen to La Casa Vieja.

Condominums crop up like weeds, sprouting broad leaves among the wildflowers of Mill Ave and we're left staring upwards into the dark at the glitter of red lights on the cranes. Is this type of development the lifeblood of progress or the bĂȘtise of our community?

I will be carrying at least 25 copies with me on Mill Avenue tomorrow night (Saturday, March 15th). Expect them. So, if you're out in the night wandering the Ave – I am pointing at thee, Jess – come and get one.

Sunday, March 09, 2008

Mill Avenue Nights: Saturday, March 9th - Marauding on Mill Ave

We had a lot of fun out there on Mill tonight.

But, to begin this story, I have to hearken back to the entire week that I spent on ASU campus. The most I’ve spent there in the past few years since I’ve started splitting my time between Michigan and Arizona. I don’t take classes there right now, but I wish that I still was, I love the academic atmosphere and I still have a lot of distance to go honing my discipline at English. Perhaps it’s time for me to actually put real time into studying the ancient masters.

This week on ASU I went to watch and study Brother Jed: a scary, fearmongering evangelical preacher who moves nomadically from campus to campus inciting anger and mockery with his abrasive, vitriolic campaign for the doctrine of his god, Jesus Christ. Of course, being the creature that I am, I brought with me a posse of atheists (mostly because one of them is who gives me rides places) and gleefully snowballed every theater major and interesting person that I could to help add to the carnival atmosphere of his visit – if for no other reason than to increase my own enjoyment or perhaps to make him more palatable while I sat.

News of this event was posted to the Mill Avenue Vexations news blog.

Mill last night certainly was a circus. I didn’t stay long to play with the preachers any more than usual, because I’m not out there to engage in the rabble with them – I’m there to study their effect on Mill Ave and I’d like to know them as people. Of course, the group gathered through the presence of Brother Jed also came.

Omar and his bullhorn created a lot of loud repartee. I got some notes on the subject, but was repeatedly forced to flee from the volume and the noise. Fortunately, there are numerous other regions of the Ave that interest me and need attention.

So, to escape the new confusion, I repaired to the drum circle, where I ended up settling to see people like Amish, Josh, Osiris, and others. A new group has been showing up on Mill of a few young people who named themselves after the Seven Deadly Sins and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. Of course, there are less than seven of them so they happen to share names between the two groups from what I discovered – since I met, and chatted with Envy / Horseman Death for a little while.

I think that I’m going to be avoiding the preachers from now on; the rasping fĂȘte that is generated between the two groups is a little too much for me. Kazz and the troupe of atheists have them rather roughly handled, I think, and the dialogue there I am sure that I can study through their fliers and interviews will be more than enough.

There also have been some rumblings of potentially setting up a live debate between the two groups. I will probably attend that.

Here’s an excerpt from my notes from last night:

“The armies are marshalling, building on both sides. Handshakes and cordial greetings light up their faces—they prepare to take their places. The theists bow their heads in prayer and the atheists stand up proud. Voices are waiting in expectation and the thunder is gathering in watchful gazes.”

And to wrap it all up: one of the street preachers gave me a rose—which now lies on my desk right now.

I love roses.