I've been trying to get this internship , and its a big to do with the school's registrar and the company. Don't worry, I'll be bemoaning the wiles of the internet this week.
In the meantime- WHAT THE FUPPETS!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
2008: Year of the Cam-Whore
2009 is already here, but I wanted to take a look back on the worst the Internet had to offer us in 2008. There were so many train wrecks to watch on the net mainly because 2008 was the year of the webcam, now that high quality cameras are readily available everyone wanted to be a star… and oh lordy how our eyes and ears suffered.
Emily before and after youtube fame, Forrow Your Dreams Emiry -___-'
YouTube makes a star… a soft-core porn star. Two years ago a young girl obsessed with Japan with much love for their language started making “ pretty intense” Japanese lessons, she became a YouTube sensation.
Applemilk1988 by 2008 was the darling of Youtube. I know what you’re thinking, how is this the worst? Well around September 2008 Emily ,now living in Japan, announced that she was doing some modeling and releasing a DVD. She called herself an “Idol” which is Japanese for “video ho”.
Though the video and still shots earned her a spot on G4’s women on the web, you can’t help but think, if the poor girl has only been in Japan for a year and was already making soft-core wank DVDs what does the future really hold for her? Many of these Japanese DVD idols end up doing porn… and if there’s any porn worst that Japanese porn I’ve yet to see it.
My prediction - by next year she’ll have eels in at least one of her sexual orifices. She says that she wants to become a singer and that’s the only reason why she’s bouncing around in wet lingerie but as the second most subscribed YouTube user in Japan wouldn’t it be easier to just make a YouTube video showing off your vocal skills? It’s Japanese pop music not the Metropolitan Opera, you don’t have to try that hard.
Video sharing sites became heaven for pedophiles. It seemed almost every other week in 2008 there was some YouTube video shot by children or by parents that had other users screaming for child protective services. Children yelling profanity sometimes even children pole dancing (next to mom of course)
Mommy and Me Pole dancing, there's nothing wrong with that...except everything.
It seems that everywhere you looked there were children being exploited for the entertainment of their parents and to the delight of all the Humbert Humberts of the world. I’m not saying that any mother that videotapes their toddler attempts to dance is exploiting them, but when the toddler is grinding to Britney Spears in booty shorts and belly shirt I think we have a problem.
Larry Sinclair- I had sex coked up gay sex with Obama! Obama girl wasn’t the only person, who had fantasies about Obama in 2008 Larry Sinclair went on YouTube during the primaries to tell the world that he had gay sex with Obama in his limo.
The seemingly toothless Sinclair sat in front of a webcam to annouce that he was at an upscale establishment in Chicago when he met Obama ( he calls him Barry), they got in Sinclair’s limo where Obama gave him cocaine while Obama smoked crack. Oh Jebus, how I wish I were making this up.
Sinclair went on to make a website www.larrysinclair.org which looks pretty much like the website that everyone made in their high school HTML class. On the site he begs for paypal donations and pre-sells copy of his book BARACK OBAMA & LARRY SINCLAIR: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder? What makes this sad is just how embarrassing it is.
I’ve never seen a human being so desperate to be a news story. When he was approached by Whitehouse.com (a satire/adult) website to take a polygraph test, he failed to see that they were openly mocking him.
Perhaps , he was just in it for the cash- Whitehouse.com did offer to pay him ten thousand dollars to take the test and another $90,000 if he passed.
Well he failed the test. Undaunted Sinclair went to Antipolygraph.org for help, to say that he’s still telling the truth and it’s the machines that can’t be trusted. It seems kind of damning, at least to me that he keeps all his posts up, especially those where Sinclair pleads that all he needs is a polygraph test, then when he gets one and fails suddenly the tests aren’t trust worthy?
It also doesn’t help that Sinclair’s websites and videos are used to prove that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, apparently the anti-Christ has to be a gay crack head. Sinclair claims he has pre-sold over 200 copies of his book through paypal, at $25 each, that would mean that Sinclair has made $15,000 off this stunt. If that’s not the worst I don’t know what is.
Bonus Video-
Larry being clearly insane.
Emily before and after youtube fame, Forrow Your Dreams Emiry -___-'
YouTube makes a star… a soft-core porn star. Two years ago a young girl obsessed with Japan with much love for their language started making “ pretty intense” Japanese lessons, she became a YouTube sensation.
Applemilk1988 by 2008 was the darling of Youtube. I know what you’re thinking, how is this the worst? Well around September 2008 Emily ,now living in Japan, announced that she was doing some modeling and releasing a DVD. She called herself an “Idol” which is Japanese for “video ho”.
Though the video and still shots earned her a spot on G4’s women on the web, you can’t help but think, if the poor girl has only been in Japan for a year and was already making soft-core wank DVDs what does the future really hold for her? Many of these Japanese DVD idols end up doing porn… and if there’s any porn worst that Japanese porn I’ve yet to see it.
My prediction - by next year she’ll have eels in at least one of her sexual orifices. She says that she wants to become a singer and that’s the only reason why she’s bouncing around in wet lingerie but as the second most subscribed YouTube user in Japan wouldn’t it be easier to just make a YouTube video showing off your vocal skills? It’s Japanese pop music not the Metropolitan Opera, you don’t have to try that hard.
Video sharing sites became heaven for pedophiles. It seemed almost every other week in 2008 there was some YouTube video shot by children or by parents that had other users screaming for child protective services. Children yelling profanity sometimes even children pole dancing (next to mom of course)
Mommy and Me Pole dancing, there's nothing wrong with that...except everything.
It seems that everywhere you looked there were children being exploited for the entertainment of their parents and to the delight of all the Humbert Humberts of the world. I’m not saying that any mother that videotapes their toddler attempts to dance is exploiting them, but when the toddler is grinding to Britney Spears in booty shorts and belly shirt I think we have a problem.
Larry Sinclair- I had sex coked up gay sex with Obama! Obama girl wasn’t the only person, who had fantasies about Obama in 2008 Larry Sinclair went on YouTube during the primaries to tell the world that he had gay sex with Obama in his limo.
The seemingly toothless Sinclair sat in front of a webcam to annouce that he was at an upscale establishment in Chicago when he met Obama ( he calls him Barry), they got in Sinclair’s limo where Obama gave him cocaine while Obama smoked crack. Oh Jebus, how I wish I were making this up.
This tool made more money than me in 2008...RAGE! Seriously where is his teeth.
Well, Sinclair was pretty much ignored by every respected news source and he made more videos and a blog blaming that on liberal media bias. That doesn’t explain why Fox News snubbed him, they thought Barak the Magic Negro was appropriate.Sinclair went on to make a website www.larrysinclair.org which looks pretty much like the website that everyone made in their high school HTML class. On the site he begs for paypal donations and pre-sells copy of his book BARACK OBAMA & LARRY SINCLAIR: Cocaine, Sex, Lies & Murder? What makes this sad is just how embarrassing it is.
I’ve never seen a human being so desperate to be a news story. When he was approached by Whitehouse.com (a satire/adult) website to take a polygraph test, he failed to see that they were openly mocking him.
Perhaps , he was just in it for the cash- Whitehouse.com did offer to pay him ten thousand dollars to take the test and another $90,000 if he passed.
Well he failed the test. Undaunted Sinclair went to Antipolygraph.org for help, to say that he’s still telling the truth and it’s the machines that can’t be trusted. It seems kind of damning, at least to me that he keeps all his posts up, especially those where Sinclair pleads that all he needs is a polygraph test, then when he gets one and fails suddenly the tests aren’t trust worthy?
It also doesn’t help that Sinclair’s websites and videos are used to prove that Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, apparently the anti-Christ has to be a gay crack head. Sinclair claims he has pre-sold over 200 copies of his book through paypal, at $25 each, that would mean that Sinclair has made $15,000 off this stunt. If that’s not the worst I don’t know what is.
Bonus Video-
Larry being clearly insane.
Thursday, January 15, 2009
Twilight Sucked ..and not in a good way
original print: 12/16/08
How the movie Twilight has managed to make over $30 million for its opening day is baffling, but the fact that it has made over $150 million in the last three weeks, I find just disheartening. There is no other way to say it; Twilight is a god awful sorry excuse for a movie. This movie is awful.Last year I wrote an article about Two Girls One Cup, and had to watch the shock video twice, I watched it both times without getting up- I had to walk out of Twilight twice just to keep myself from attacking the screen.
That pretty much means my tolerance for scat eating lesbians throwing up feces on each other was higher than it was for this stoic, drab insult to women's intelligence.
Twilight, which opened Nov. 21, is the teenaged "love" story of Bella Swan, the town sheriff's daughter and a local vampire pretty boy, Edward Cullen. The movie is based on the four book series by Stephanie Meyer.
I would usually advise to read the book, but they too are terrible.
You can't quite call it a vampire love story mainly because all supernatural elements of the story take a back seat to adolescence self importance and babbling about how special and great the two main characters are.
What this movie really consists of is two pale brunettes staring at each other with their mouths open for over 90mins.
There really isn't a love story either, about 10 minutes after meeting Edward, Bella wakes up and announces that she's in love with him.
Literally, she rolls out of bed , makes a short soliloquy about how much she can't stop thinking about him, and BAM- she's in love.
Its frustrating watching this, because the writer of the movie, has written several episodes of the hit show Dexter, a smart witty and sometimes gruesome show about the worlds most lovable serial killer. I kept asking myself where did all that talent go? In all honesty you have to remember that an adaptation can only be as good as it's source material, and comparatively the writer of the movie made Bella a much less offensive character.
The book has Bella more of a self-loathing ugly duckling and Edward, well he's still as much of a creepy stalker as he is in the book, but most of Edward watching Bella sleep at night was thankfully cut. The movie version of Bella opted to have her have no personality at all than have her be pathetic.
This is no Romeo and Juliet, Twilight lacks the bite of conflict. Sure Bella is a human, and Edward is a vampire, but he's a vegetarian vampire…he doesn't eat people. Note to the author of twilight- Deer are not vegetables as they are made of meat.
The reason that Edward doesn't want to go into the sunlight, spontaneous (awesome) combustion?
Nope, the reason is he'll sparkle like stripper that went overboard on the Fredrick's of Hollywood body dust.
Bella is the new girl at school did she feel like an awkward outcast? No,everyone instantly loves her, Edward's family instantly loves her, there's absolutely nothing to keep one invested in the cardboard problem free characters.
The first set of characters we meet are the children at Bella's school, they are all stock characters, the geeks, the pretty popular girls and the dumb jock , the all American stud. The second group are the Cullen's Edward's beautiful incestuous family.
They all seem to serve the purpose to tell the viewer that they love Bella, and we should accept that she's lovable even though she's given us no reason to care about her.
Bella's multi-culture pals were white in Meyer's book; the casting director decided that throwing in some minorities would liven up the film. I'm all for multi-ethnic casts, but when the dumb jock is the only black man in the movie, and the only two Asians are "nerds" you have to ask what was the point. Why not just stay at stereotypes without upgrading to racism.
This is most uncomfortable when the dumb jock loses control of his car and almost kills Bella in the school parking lot, of course her vampiric love is there to save the day, Bella is not harmed.
The Jock driving has a bleeding head wound and as he hangs out of the smoking car all he can do is apologize to Bella, as those around him scream and admonish him for almost hurting her.
The next scene is in a hospital where Bella is getting the attention of nurses; the bleeding black man is sitting alone, and then is told by Bella's father that he's losing his license.
My movie-watching companion made a joke that there was probably a deleted cross-burning scene, I laughed but I have to admit it would have fit seamlessly.
I'm sure it would be a close up of Bella long black hair blowing in the wind as the sheriff's department drag the jock out of his house and stomp on him, blurred in the background. If they can have vampires playing baseball why not, right?
The last 30 minutes of the movie is the only part of the movie with an attempt at conflict. Three bad vampires show up during a baseball game, yes you read that correctly.
For no reason other than to fill time one of the vampires wants to eat Bella.
This results in Edward trying to take Bella against her will to "protect her". This is also the point were I realize that this love story is one backhand away from being a Lifetime channel movie.
The Cullens try to save Bella, because they love her for no good reason. The bad vampire beats the crap out of her , which I have to admit was strangely satisfying to watch.
The good vampires rip him to pieces and set him on fire. Sounds awesome right? WRONG, You don't get to see it!
While the bad guy is getting dismembered the camera doesn't focus on this, it focuses on Bella and Edward staring at each other, because that the director felt was more interesting than a dismembered dude on fire.
Well, Catherine Hardwicke it's not.
Twilight is a horrible movie, made from a horrible book. The fact that people are giving this movie a pass because it was made for teenaged girls should be an insult to women everywhere.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
Fat Ass No More: Having a POLE lot of fun!
One RU Student's path to fitness.
original print : 12/9/08
It seems like a lifetime since I started on my odyssey of fitness and self-improvement; I've been at this since May. There's been a lot of blood, tears and Gatorade for me this year, but through it all I found myself bored. The only thing that changed in my fitness routine was that time I had less to work out.Because of work, classes and ,of course the glorious paper you hold in your hands (or read on-line), fitness had taken a back seat.
I found my self bored and lacking inspiration. I was waking up in the morning, throwing on a work out DVD going to class, going to work then going to the gym if I had the time to spare. I bet you yawned reading that sentence, imagine that as your life for 3 months.
I consider myself a resourceful woman, and when I see a problem I like to attack it directly. I didn't want my boredom to give way to lethargy. I needed to shake up my fitness routine. I wanted something fun, something that would make me feel good as well as look good.
Like most of life's problems YouTube solved this one, I noticed a video attached to one of mine that I never noticed before. It was call Miss Pole Dance Australia 2006, in it a small red haired Aussie performed Cirque De Soleil like feats of acrobatics, flexibility and strength. I was mesmerized. It was right then I knew what I had to do. I needed to learn the art of the pole.
I'm not the first woman to come to this conclusion. Since the beginning of the sexual revolution women have been reclaiming "erotic" arts as their own. Practicing these acts help women to enjoy their bodies without having to sexually gratify a man or feel degraded. There's no reason that a woman should feel ashamed just because she's moving her body. She should feel strong confident and beautiful.
Hungry for that feeling I looked for a studio in Newark to no avail, not to be discouraged I found a studio that could be easily reached using the Path train. One block away from the 33rd street path station lies, Exotic Dance Central, a cozy inviting studio that welcomes " the everyday woman".
On their website, ExoticDanceCenter.com they boast that they're "NYC's number one pole and exotic dance central" and I don't argue with them. I've never seen dance studio with a martini bar. If my high school ballet studio had one I might have never hung up my toe shoes.
The Erotic Dance Center offers a 2hr pole dancing intensive lesson for 60 dollars. It seemed like a steal because the only other 3 studios that offered pole dancing charged that or more for just one hour. I figured with my strong background in dance and frugal leanings this was where I belonged.
Of course, I did modern, lyrical and jazz dance. If dance were Greek city-states, ballet would be Athens, and pole dancing would be Sparta - not historically accurate Sparta , but 8-pack-sporting-panty-wearing- Frank Miller- Sparta. A gravity defying full body work out.
Exotic Dance Central's website lets you book and pay for classes online, so I made sure to book the first available intensive after Thanksgiving, -- if there's ever a time you need an intense workout its after ingesting 5 different types of pies.
The website tells you what you can and cannot wear, I was happy to see that I needed stiletto heels that are least 3 inches high. Finally, my two favorite things were coming together, "f" me shoes and fitness. I was far less happy to read I had to wear a tank top; I usually have an issue showing my flab in public, or at least well-lit places. Luckily for me and other shy women, the classes are female only.
The class was small only 12 people including our friendly instructor Alieesah. The chorus line was full of interesting people, save myself. Before we started the workout Alieesah asked each of us what brought us to the class. I felt horribly shy for some reason, and mumble something about being a special event dancer.
A bad joke, sadly weddings and bat mitzvahs are the only special events in which I'm able to dance.
I found that one of the ladies was a bride-to-be and brought three of her friends along to kick off her bachelorette party. There were a group of ladies that actually looked like they stepped out of Greek lore; they were fitness instructors looking to bring pole fitness to their gym. I tried not to look at my gut every time they flexed their abs. There was a woman who had just came from Israel, and served in the army, next to her was a woman whose husband was due home from Afghanistan and she was looking for a special welcome home.
This interesting cast of women were all sitting on yoga mats waiting to feel the burn and having no idea what was coming to them. It was a strange calm, we all sat barefoot listening to the soothing music from our instructor's Ipod. She led us through a nice warm up, stretching each portion of ourselves. If it weren't for the cold steal of the pole touching my ankle when I stretched in second position on the floor, I would have forgotten that I was in a pole dance studio and not a ballet one. Barefoot , limber and sweaty I felt in my element.
That feeling fled once it was time to meet the pole. Alieesah began to talk about "pole burn" , the nickname for the friction between your skin and the pole. It is every bit as uncomfortable as it sounds. My first introduction to this sensation was during our first pole exercise. I was instructed to grab the pole well above my head, grasp tightly and lift my legs off the ground. Sounds easy to you? Well then you are not a portly young lady with the upper body strength of a dead quadriplegic.
As I gripped with all my might and tried to keep my legs up, I could feel my skin and the pole going to war, and the pole was winning. It was an odd feeling, I had to chose between my skin being stretched or being "that fat girl that fell during pole dancing class" every time that bride to the story of her last outing as a single woman.
I refused; I held on to that pole with all my might, unfortunately gravity was mightier.
Tumbles aside, I found myself having fun, especially at the one hour mark of the class when I got to put on my 6.5 inch heels. It was kind of cool being 6'3 and a half. While it was hard for me to get past the controlled chaos that is swinging on the pole, I had fun strutting around and feeling … surprisingly sexy albeit the most clumsy unattractive brand of Sexy, akin maybe to the No Frills section of Pathmark.
Pole dancing is hard, and there really is no way around it. It's a shame that most of the people that excel at this skill are only rewarded with sweaty crumbled bills. What they deserve is applause and flowers; sadly that's not the case, yet. Feminist protest aside, any workout than can turn a fat ass into six feet-three-inches and 250 pounds of walking sex piled on top of itself has to be worth looking into.
For More Information or to have a pole adventure of your own go to ExoticDanceCentral.com
© Copyright 2009 Observer
The Monsters in Front of the Monitor
Posted: 12/2/08
On Nov. 19, a disturbed young man put an end to his life. This could be said of many people because suicide happens everyday in this country, but what sets the death of Abraham Biggs apart is that he died under the supervision of almost 200 people live on JustinTV.com.Biggs started blogging on his myspace page about having suicidal thoughts, shortly after he went to a forum he frequented, BodyBuilding.com (posting under the name "CandyJunkie") he shared with his community his intent to end his life. Biggs had a history of mental illness and had told the community he was attempting to end his life before. Some believing they were being hoaxed and others generally indiffrent, several users "called his bluff".
CandyJunkie obliged them . He started a live stream on JustinTV.com, a website that lets users put on live scheduled or impromptu shows for others along with chat and recording capabilities, and shared the link. They wanted live proof that he wanted to die so, Biggs posted a suicide note (that was posted on another site) and proceeded to ingest a deadly combination of drug and alchol.
Once broadcasting he showed his audience the pills he intended to take, with alcohol. After taking them he appeared incoherent, and collapsed onto the bed behind him with his face away from the camera. He would never get up.
He appeared to be breathing for about 3 hours, according to one posting on BodyBuilding.com, and then his breathing became shallow, then all together stopped.
It was only after he had consumed the pills and liquor that a moderator or "mod" was called to help. The BodyBuilding.com mod "Roxie" dismissed the thread and called Biggs an attention whore". Users on BodyBuilding.com and JustinTV.com then looked at Biggs postings to see where he lived, one poster JJlee138 who had earlier admonished fellow posters for egging Biggs on successfully contacted the local sheriff department. Help arrived a half hour later, but it's too late. Shocked viewers watched as an EMT checked Biggs's vital signs and solemnly covered his web camera.
Even after friends posted condolences on the youth's MySpace page, many believed they were watching an elaborate hoax. It was not until CNN reported the death as well as a post from Biggs older sister, Rosilind did the community realized what had really happend. They had watched a man die.
There are obviously many disturbing aspects to this sad story, but there are three things that disturb me the most the fact that a emotionally disturbed person was asked to basically make a live snuff film for the amusement of others. That those that opposed this act remained silent for so long and finally that people waited as long as they did to seek help.
While in all honesty looking at the original thread (since removed) the majority of posters did not want to see CandyJunkie die. Despite objecting to his actions, why did so many still watch, and do nothing?
The compliance of posters that wanted to help, but did not, to me is the same as seeing a child about to walk into a busy street, and waiting until they were hit by a car to call fo help.
While its comforting to know that someone eventually did call the police, it happend too late.
After the death was confirmed posters hurled venomous remarks at Biggs's friends and familily, callous remarks like that of poster YoMaMa84, after sending condolences they added, " … if any one should have helped him it should have been you."
I cannot remember the last time I felt so ashamed of humanity, a young lady loses her brother and in an attempt to defend the act of watching him die she is told that she didn't do enough to help?
A human life was lost, a life that means no more or less than one's own. I was thankful to read poster CelticFan rebottle to YoMAMA84 saying," You would think it was his PC hard drive that died, It was a (explitive)ing human being , you moron."
Sadly CelticFan's voice was one of decent on BodyBuilding.com's "Misc." forum, a do and say anything section of the website.
Even more sad is what this tells us about our relationship with the internet and each other. How detached have we become on this web that is supposed to connect us that a man screaming for help is used for the basis of bad jokes?
Perhaps we have regressed to the point where we cannot feel connected to our fellow man, but more disturbing is the thought that this isn't a regression at all, simply an amplification of human nature.
When I first heard about this, long before the the story hit the mainstream news, was how could someone watch someone's baby die like that- of course just like me, all those who watched emotionless, were someone's' baby also.
The most disturbing part of this ordeal is realizing that we just witnessed humanities' true face, and it's ugly.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
Seeing Is Not Believing and Lil' Wayne isn't dead
original print: 11/11/08
Reports of Lil' Wayne's death have been greatly exaggerated… and annoying. A fake web page created to look like BBC.com made its rounds Halloween weekend, sending his fans into a text messaging and googling frenzy. This is the second death rumor involving the rapper; during the Summer, a rumor that his child was killed in a car accident also circulated. These rumors travel like lightning, and they chip away at the trust many had in Internet journalism.
I'm in no way saying this is the internet generation's Pentagon papers; this is far from it. But every time some bored person goes nuts with CSS stylesheets , the belief that there are reputable and safe internet sites wavers in the hearts and minds of young and impressionable people. Minds that are obviously already mushy enough to buy a million copies of a seemingly drunk man yodel into a mic and call it music are the same minds that aren't going to examine urls in a moment of panic. The page was cloned from a reputable BBC article called "Letter-bombing caretaker jailed." The fake page even had active links to email the story and print it.
When I saw the link to the "news story" I didn't believe it for a moment. The url, http://kineticnorth.com/BBCNews/?NewsGUID=fcf016e0-c92b-445a-aab0-735fdcecf0a3, was not even hosted on the BBC site. The fact that the story also strangely popped up across the pond before being plastered all over CNN didn't seem too likely. Of course I'm not a 14-year-old-girl who sees the Internet as a homework machine and mystical portal that somehow makes Facebook happen. A more casual user might not look twice at the url of a site, they just see they were sent a link that said "OMG THEY SHOT WEEZY OMGZ" and, as far as they know, the man plastered on their locker is no more. Grief and panic ensues and they express it the only way they know how: texting everyone they know.
It's easy to spread a rumor, and anyone that survived high school knows that if enough people believe a lie, in a way it momentarily becomes the truth. When someone plays a "prank" using news websites, they are directly attacking the credibility of not only that organization they are taking a swipe at; they are attacking journalism on the internet as a whole. A virgining of an entity as the Internet is, there are many that tend to find information found in a newspaper or on TV is more believable.
It is a logical conclusion, after all. We have been reared with the traditional producer/consumer model of information. Something happens, a journalist writes the story and it's broadcast through the one-way street of television, radio and print. The Internet is a completely different monster. We have blog sites like the Huffington Post blurring the line between blog and news, and sites like Youtube where a CNN story might not get as many views as a teen performing an interesting trick in their living room. So when something with a familiar logo pops up, some automatically assume that they are seeing a trusted producer, even when they are actually just looking at the handy work of a crafty netizen like themselves, a person with no access to "privileged information" and really is just looking for some "lulz".
It could almost make one paranoid. Whom can you trust in a situation where the same medium that's expected to give you trusted information is overrun with content not concerned with journalistic integrity. This is further complicated in situations like a hoax. A hoax like the death of Lil' Wayne has only one objective: to deceive you. How can you check facts on the Internet when the very sites that are lifted above the others are tainted? It's enough to make one log off and pick up a newspaper…
Reports of Lil' Wayne's death have been greatly exaggerated… and annoying. A fake web page created to look like BBC.com made its rounds Halloween weekend, sending his fans into a text messaging and googling frenzy. This is the second death rumor involving the rapper; during the Summer, a rumor that his child was killed in a car accident also circulated. These rumors travel like lightning, and they chip away at the trust many had in Internet journalism.
I'm in no way saying this is the internet generation's Pentagon papers; this is far from it. But every time some bored person goes nuts with CSS stylesheets , the belief that there are reputable and safe internet sites wavers in the hearts and minds of young and impressionable people. Minds that are obviously already mushy enough to buy a million copies of a seemingly drunk man yodel into a mic and call it music are the same minds that aren't going to examine urls in a moment of panic. The page was cloned from a reputable BBC article called "Letter-bombing caretaker jailed." The fake page even had active links to email the story and print it.
When I saw the link to the "news story" I didn't believe it for a moment. The url, http://kineticnorth.com/BBCNews/?NewsGUID=fcf016e0-c92b-445a-aab0-735fdcecf0a3, was not even hosted on the BBC site. The fact that the story also strangely popped up across the pond before being plastered all over CNN didn't seem too likely. Of course I'm not a 14-year-old-girl who sees the Internet as a homework machine and mystical portal that somehow makes Facebook happen. A more casual user might not look twice at the url of a site, they just see they were sent a link that said "OMG THEY SHOT WEEZY OMGZ" and, as far as they know, the man plastered on their locker is no more. Grief and panic ensues and they express it the only way they know how: texting everyone they know.
It's easy to spread a rumor, and anyone that survived high school knows that if enough people believe a lie, in a way it momentarily becomes the truth. When someone plays a "prank" using news websites, they are directly attacking the credibility of not only that organization they are taking a swipe at; they are attacking journalism on the internet as a whole. A virgining of an entity as the Internet is, there are many that tend to find information found in a newspaper or on TV is more believable.
It is a logical conclusion, after all. We have been reared with the traditional producer/consumer model of information. Something happens, a journalist writes the story and it's broadcast through the one-way street of television, radio and print. The Internet is a completely different monster. We have blog sites like the Huffington Post blurring the line between blog and news, and sites like Youtube where a CNN story might not get as many views as a teen performing an interesting trick in their living room. So when something with a familiar logo pops up, some automatically assume that they are seeing a trusted producer, even when they are actually just looking at the handy work of a crafty netizen like themselves, a person with no access to "privileged information" and really is just looking for some "lulz".
It could almost make one paranoid. Whom can you trust in a situation where the same medium that's expected to give you trusted information is overrun with content not concerned with journalistic integrity. This is further complicated in situations like a hoax. A hoax like the death of Lil' Wayne has only one objective: to deceive you. How can you check facts on the Internet when the very sites that are lifted above the others are tainted? It's enough to make one log off and pick up a newspaper…
R U BEING PWND?
Sure signs its a hoax:
-Check the url. If it came from BBC.com , but the url doesn't look like other BBC stories, it's most likely a hoax.
- Are the links working? Most pranksters don't take the time to link to current stories, since it's very time consuming. Click around the site to see if the links are dummies.
-Check the Who is information of the site. Research who is presenting and spreading the information.
-If a celeb is reported dead, check their publicist page (it's usually linked to the celebs homepage). Death announcements are usually officially made to alert the press.
- Google! Google any and all names the article mentions.
Living in a Culture of Cruelty
Orginal print: 10/7/08
Last week, popular Korean actress Choi Jin Sil , was found by her mother hanged in her bathroom. She had taken her own life. The official statement from her management stated that the actress was depressed and susceptible to Internet rumors and nasty messages about her and her children.Many readers of the Observer may not be familiar with the 20-year career that Choi left behind. She stared in many popular TV dramas and was called "the people's actress" because of her popularity and her seemingly ageless beauty. She was found in her shower stall hanged with an elastic bandage.
A woman only identified as Baek, was arrested on Sept. 30 for starting and circulating a false rumor that Choi had lent 2 million dollars to another actor that recently took his own life. The falsity fueled forums and websites of anti-fans as well as blogs and gossip sites in her home country.
Her life in the public eye was as dramatic as the movies and soap operas that made her who she is. Which in turn made her fodder for the tabloids. Everything from her storybook wedding to her abusive husband and painful divorce was covered. Now added to that is her somber Oct 4 funeral at the Samsung Medical Center in Seoul.
According to the JoonGang Daily, notes Choi left behind said that she was a solitary person, a victim of bullying, and that she didn't feel right. She called close friends and told them to look after her two children. Even though the woman that created the rumor called and begged for forgiveness the damage was done, it was becoming common knowledge that Choi had lent the money and she felt oppressed by the backlash.
It seems universal that all those in the public eye have given up a certain level of privacy because of it, but the worldwide trend of making the humiliation of celebrities entertainment now has a body count. When our popcorn entertainment is at the expense of another human being's mental health what does that say about humanity?
Celeb blogging has spawned its own celebrities because of it's popularity. Sites like PerezHilton.com or Bossip.com attract millions of hits A DAY. Those hits, all people waiting to comment on the latest snafu of Britney Spears or to call Sienna Miller a wife-stealing hussy.
The Celebrity "news" organization TMZ.com has made a fortune off their sea of paparazzi capturing the lowest lows of A-listers to D-listers a like. At some point when will enough be enough? We already have cable stations dedicated to talking about them. Countless magazines that tell us what they wear, eat and even disturbingly enough the contents of their garbage cans.
The question of cyber bullying has always been a hot topic when talking about ethical behavior on the Internet. When a mother impersonated a teen-aged-boy to seduce then humiliate her daughters' school rival, the incident lead to a child killing herself. The media foamed at the mouth and it seemed the courts teemed with frustration that there really wasn't anything they could charge her with.
There is no such fervor against celeb blogs or TMZ when Britney Spears is put on suicide watch. In fact Dr.Phil will just take the opportunity to self promote because he knew the cameras would be rolling.The whole affair is one bad joke.
Cyber bullying seems horrific when done to an average person but perfectly acceptable for someone in the public eye. I can accept that news of a divorce of a popular actress is somewhat newsworthy, but there's a large difference between reporting on a split and running a headline defaming one or both of the parties.
The average netizen cannot help what TMZ.com posts, but we can become more aware of our own actions. It's easy to disconnect oneself from responsibility when posting something horrible, its hard to see a public figure as a human being. Cases like Britney Spears, Mariah Carey or tragically Choi Jin Sil prove that they are. When it comes down to it all we are doing are building a figure up to enjoy tearing them down.
Why do we need humiliation to entertain us, not just reality TV, but to see a actual human being become undone. Where is the fun in that? How can our consciences be clear when we are willing participants in a culture that finds the need to poke fun at the looks or actions of a complete stranger?
I hope that everyone will become mindful of what they post no matter who it's about - be it the chick with the tramp stamp on facebook or a famous face your comments hold weight and could affect someone. Underneath the Mac makeup and Prada clothes they are people just like you, and me, post accordingly.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
R U A FAT ASS?
Getting Fit For FREE at Rutgers
Posted: 9/9/08
While most students were getting a head start on that freshman fifteen, I spent my summer trying to achieve the almost unachievable. I wanted to get fit and healthy while staying on a college campus.This is no easy task, as many RU-Newark residents know, healthy living isn't exactly synonymous with the college lifestyle. Student life is full of stress, sitting on you butt trying to beat the latest 70-hour game and eating Funions as a meal. Funions are not a meal they are a cry for help.
I was no different; I was actually the pudgy poster child of the sedimentary lifestyle that plagues most college students.
As I reached the twilight of my undergraduate career something dawned on me, I didn't gain the freshman 15, for me it was more like the freshman 130. I was a cheese doddle away from washing myself with a rag on a stick. Something needed to be done -something drastic, but something inexpensive.
If my pockets were as fat as I was, I would have no problem; unfortunately, I was the broke college student trying to get by on a minimum wage job. My empty bank account was not all I had in common with the average college student.
"College students aren't thinking of being healthy," says Dr. Sandra Samuels, MD, Medical Director of the Rutgers Newark Health Center, " and that's the problem."
According to a 2007 study at the university of New Hampshire out of 800 students at least one-third were overweight or obese, 8 percent of men had metabolic syndrome, 60 percent of men had high blood pressure, and more than two-thirds of women were not meeting their nutritional needs for iron or calcium.
Not only are we as college students under the mental stress of achievement we are putting our bodies through abuse without much of a second thought. Did you ever go more than six hours without eating? Do you ever plan your meals ahead of time? Are you mindful of your daily caloric intake? Yeah...I wasn't either.
I needed to take the first step into making a lifestyle change. I went to the doctor an extremely important step. I visited the Health Clinic on campus, which is free for full time students. Together with the staff of the health center I was able to form a realistic goal and battle plan. My goal , drop 50 pounds by Sept. 1.
The Health center is a wealth of free info on nutrition as well as active living. It is even possible to see a nutritionist outside of the clinic for free; such visits are included in our student insurance.
"There should be more options" lamented Samuels, "There should be beautiful food that should be appetizing for students that way they have a clear choice away from hot dogs and hamburgers everyday."
According to Dr. Dawn Graff-Haight's Eating Well with No Time and Money which is distributed by ETR Associates, the most important thing you can do is have a plan. This tackles the 3 most common weight gaining and pocket shrinking habits- Skipping meals, depending on fast food and impulse food shopping.
Here in lies a critical step, planning and organization. This honestly was never my strong point, and the same goes for many students that are new to time management skills.
Dr. Samuels gave me a sample food diary page; in it I recorded everything I ate. I would use one of the numerous free online calorie counters to get a ballpark figure of my caloric intake. The food diary cut my days into breakfast, snack 1, lunch snack 2 and dinner.
When I began seeing my day cut into these meal times, I was able to begin planning what I would be eating a day ahead of time, as the weeks went on, I was making two week shopping lists because I knew exactly what I would be eating, giving myself enough variety not to get bored or crave quick fix junk.
Being an upper class man I depend on the grocery shuttle that is provided by public safety, many dorming students eat only in the cafeteria, You can still plan healthy choices even when the campus center is your only means of survival. There are many fresh fruit and salad choices.
I personally stocked up on Lean Cuisine meals, because of my class and work schedule cooking just seemed like too much of a chore. The prepackaged meal was perfect and available at many locations within walking distance from the dorms. They can even be purchased with your Raider Card in Raider Mart. They are slightly more expensive there than say FoodBasic but the location is the most convenient.
In the first week, just by watching what I ate I dropped 4 pounds, in just seven days. I was very impressed with what happened but I had set a goal to try to lose at least 50 pounds by the first day of the fall semester and I knew that changing your diet alone wasn't going to give me the result I needed. Losing weight is fine, but I didn't want to look like the elephant man after. I wanted to look good and not just weigh less.
I had to change my body; I asked my high school dance instructor what was the best way to do this. Her answer shocked me a bit, she said "The first step, Get a mirror, take off your clothes -all of them- and stare at every nook and cranny your body has. If you see something you don't like work those muscles."
This was the sage advice from a woman who in her sixties looks better than most women in their twenties so I decided to give it a go. I've never been so inspired to change in my life. When I saw myself all I could think was "Oh god, it looks like I'm melting!"'
After the initial shock wore off, I saw my body as clay to be molded. This is was my new canvas, and I learned to love my work in progress.
Now to work those muscles I needed to work out. Everyone knows gyms are not only expensive but for those of us without cars hard to get as well. Never fear fatty, our campus is rife with free ways to get fit.
Golden Dome gym, is the most obvious choice. Its open to all students, and free for full time students. They offer classes that you have to pay for but the weight room, fitness center and pool are all free to access. The first week that I went to golden dome ever weekday I dropped an amazing 18 pounds. Nothing keeps you on a treadmill like imagining yourself naked.
Now the gym experience is not for all, they have this pesky habit of having mirrors all around so not just you, but everyone, can see you flailing your plump appendages about like your having a seizure.
The gym shy can avoid humiliation by turning on the TV. FitTV channel 42 in the R-N dorms is a 24 hour fitness minded network. On there you can find any type of workout. On FitTV.com not only can you get nutritional tools and recipes for free but you can set email reminders so you don't forget to tune in and work out!
But not everyone brings a TV or computer to campus, According to Dr. Samuels this should be no problem. Students don't need to step foot off campus or in the gym get physical.
"Every building has stairs, walk around campus, go dancing on the weekends, there are many wonderful ways to casually keep moving," said Dr. Samuels.
One of the biggest pitfalls for many trying to win the battle of the bulge is an emotional one, that is the simple need for support. Unfortunately, I kick started my healthy habits while living alone in Talbot apartments. So I did what any pathetic mouth breathing fat nerd would do. I turned to the Internet and made a youtube group.
At the end of the summer I lost 53 pounds and gained a wealth of knowledge about not only how my body works but also how to keep it healthy. While I won't be posing in King Magazine anytime soon, I'm excited to finally take a step in the right direction. I hope that I can lose 50 pounds more by the start of the spring semester.
Let's face it, fitness is never going to be this cheap again.
Want to Be A Fat Ass No More?
Watch my summer Vlog for more details about
getting fit free & Rutgers Newark at www.youtube.com/group/fatassnomore
The Trashman Cometh
originalprint: 9/2/08
If there is one invention that maxed out the life ruining potential of the internet it would have to be the web camera. No other device give people the ability to shoot themselves in the proverbial foot like these tiny little devils. Wither attached to your laptop, phone or the old standard Quickcam , people just can't get enough of incriminating themselves on the internet.
Before this summer I thought I've seen it all, if there was anything more shocking than pre-teens sadistically beating up one of their peers and then uploading it to YouTube for street cred I just couldn't fathom it. After the girl fight fiasco there was the infamous Burger King video that was uploaded onto Myspace.
An employee of the franchise apparently didn't think that employees should only wash their hands at work, he posted a short video of him laughing and joking with co-workers as he took a bubble bath in the store's sink- the same one where they wash the food that they serve to you the consumer.
What surprised me was the mans reaction to the consequences of his actions, not only was he fired, but everyone that happened to be working, even those unaware of what too place. Somehow, this young man had forgotten that just because you're filming yourself doesn't mean you're in a movie. Filming something in the name of entertainment doesn't render your impervious the results of your action.
There was no other incident this summer that personified this phenomenon like the Arrest of Anthony "Trashman" Dunn. Dunn , a pornographer, was gaining popularity on video streaming sites because of his outlandish claims of starting a one man genocide of Black and Latina women by infecting thousands with the AIDS virus.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around why thousands of people would watch a middle aged man dressed like a Wal-Mart ninja read off obviously made up names and spew hatred against Blacks and Latinas, but eh Uwe Boll still gets to make movies so there's always an audience for things that are tasteless and horrible.
I suppose that after his "success" with his AIDS video, Trashman decided to step it up a notch, and add infanticide to the mix. Dunn uploaded videos claiming that he had convinced employees of Gerber baby foods to put cyanide into random bottle of food in an effort to kill the babies of Black and Latin women.
The most shocking part of this story was that his fans were "shocked" that he ended up arrested and facing at the least 10 years in prison. It seems that people need a refresher in the basics of free speech and personal responsibility. When the "Trashman"'s account was suspended from YouTube there were cries of censorship.
Many of the "Trashman"'s fans believed he was making satirical public service announcements, warning women about the dangers of unprotected sex. I'm not really sure how they justify a man saying that he wants Black and Latin babies to die is a satirical statement, then again people think Tila Tequila is a champion for gay rights. If he was trying to make a point or not, there's some basic rules conduct.
If you make a video, or any public broadcast, that will potentially cost a large corporation massive amounts on my prepared to be sued. If you make a video where you say you are going to kill massive amounts of people, be prepared to go to jail. Just like if you scream fire in a theatre, you're going to have some explaining to do.
While you have the freedom to say whatever your heart desire, even say how much you want to kill babies, you then will become responsible for those words. If your words cause a mass hysteria then you are committing a crime. Broadcasting that you are tampering with a consumer product and intend to kill babies, not only makes you look like a bootleg Batman villain, but it makes you officially a criminal.
I don't get why people seem to think that they can post anything on YouTube and it doesn't have any bearing on the world around you. If you post a video of yourself dropping kicking a baby, you can best believe that Child Services will be knocking on your door in the near future.
Even If you though you were teaching the baby a lesson, or you were doing what you thought was brilliant performance art, just because it entertains bored college kids doesn't mean your accountability is any less than if the police witnessed you confessing to a criminal act.
If you must whore for attention on YouTube, take the safe route and post videos of yourself shot and an extreme angle, or booty pop for the admiration of the Internet. Claiming that you want to kill 4 million women with aids, going to poison children or killing political figures will land you in the clink.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
If there is one invention that maxed out the life ruining potential of the internet it would have to be the web camera. No other device give people the ability to shoot themselves in the proverbial foot like these tiny little devils. Wither attached to your laptop, phone or the old standard Quickcam , people just can't get enough of incriminating themselves on the internet.
Before this summer I thought I've seen it all, if there was anything more shocking than pre-teens sadistically beating up one of their peers and then uploading it to YouTube for street cred I just couldn't fathom it. After the girl fight fiasco there was the infamous Burger King video that was uploaded onto Myspace.
An employee of the franchise apparently didn't think that employees should only wash their hands at work, he posted a short video of him laughing and joking with co-workers as he took a bubble bath in the store's sink- the same one where they wash the food that they serve to you the consumer.
What surprised me was the mans reaction to the consequences of his actions, not only was he fired, but everyone that happened to be working, even those unaware of what too place. Somehow, this young man had forgotten that just because you're filming yourself doesn't mean you're in a movie. Filming something in the name of entertainment doesn't render your impervious the results of your action.
There was no other incident this summer that personified this phenomenon like the Arrest of Anthony "Trashman" Dunn. Dunn , a pornographer, was gaining popularity on video streaming sites because of his outlandish claims of starting a one man genocide of Black and Latina women by infecting thousands with the AIDS virus.
I'm still trying to wrap my head around why thousands of people would watch a middle aged man dressed like a Wal-Mart ninja read off obviously made up names and spew hatred against Blacks and Latinas, but eh Uwe Boll still gets to make movies so there's always an audience for things that are tasteless and horrible.
I suppose that after his "success" with his AIDS video, Trashman decided to step it up a notch, and add infanticide to the mix. Dunn uploaded videos claiming that he had convinced employees of Gerber baby foods to put cyanide into random bottle of food in an effort to kill the babies of Black and Latin women.
The most shocking part of this story was that his fans were "shocked" that he ended up arrested and facing at the least 10 years in prison. It seems that people need a refresher in the basics of free speech and personal responsibility. When the "Trashman"'s account was suspended from YouTube there were cries of censorship.
Many of the "Trashman"'s fans believed he was making satirical public service announcements, warning women about the dangers of unprotected sex. I'm not really sure how they justify a man saying that he wants Black and Latin babies to die is a satirical statement, then again people think Tila Tequila is a champion for gay rights. If he was trying to make a point or not, there's some basic rules conduct.
If you make a video, or any public broadcast, that will potentially cost a large corporation massive amounts on my prepared to be sued. If you make a video where you say you are going to kill massive amounts of people, be prepared to go to jail. Just like if you scream fire in a theatre, you're going to have some explaining to do.
While you have the freedom to say whatever your heart desire, even say how much you want to kill babies, you then will become responsible for those words. If your words cause a mass hysteria then you are committing a crime. Broadcasting that you are tampering with a consumer product and intend to kill babies, not only makes you look like a bootleg Batman villain, but it makes you officially a criminal.
I don't get why people seem to think that they can post anything on YouTube and it doesn't have any bearing on the world around you. If you post a video of yourself dropping kicking a baby, you can best believe that Child Services will be knocking on your door in the near future.
Even If you though you were teaching the baby a lesson, or you were doing what you thought was brilliant performance art, just because it entertains bored college kids doesn't mean your accountability is any less than if the police witnessed you confessing to a criminal act.
If you must whore for attention on YouTube, take the safe route and post videos of yourself shot and an extreme angle, or booty pop for the admiration of the Internet. Claiming that you want to kill 4 million women with aids, going to poison children or killing political figures will land you in the clink.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
SEX, LIES & HTML
original print : 4/22/08
Frederick Knott dialed M for murder, but millions of users are logging on to commit their cardinal sins.
The internet super highway for many leads them straight to adultery. Not only are people finding digital solutions to their seven year itch, but sites are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year exploiting them.
From high end mistress brokers to sleazy sex hookup sites infidelity online is big business.
The approach of each site is a little different; some don't concern themselves completely with married men and women, while others are pretty explicit concerning jump starting affairs.
One of the most common less in your face, facet of internet adultery is the phenomenon of Sugar Daddies/Mommies and babes sites. The sites are plentiful and usually don't mention affairs, but you can usually choose what type of relationship you're after. One of the most common seen on profiles are "discrete relationships"
The Sugar Daddy Baby sites range in price from 19.95 a month to 35.95 a month with the gold-diggers - er- "sugar babes" usually paying the higher price. Ironically the most expensive of these sites MillionaireMate.com seems to be the same group of people that have joined Passion.com and AdultFriendFinder.com. You are paying 35.95 a month for the same guy that is worth 12.99 on another site.
On many they urge people to maintain a "classy demeanor", like on SugarDaddie.com.
I think this is pretty impossible. Even if you are wearing a turtle neck and wool slacks and none of your body is showing you are still auctioning off your body to the highest bidder in hopes that you will get money and gifts for simply being attractive.
I really can't think of a more classless and disrespectful act that a person can put their body through.
To be fair , on there are many profiles and posts on Sugar daddy websites that simply reek of desperation, while the sob stories posted are more than half the time fabrications, I'm sure the person that put them up was in a desperate bind.
Unfortunately, there are many people that seem just clueless. At 45 years old, no person should be calling themselves a "baby" and they really shouldn't be trying to live off their looks.
No matter how desperate their situation, I really think the sugar daddy route is not the best choice for them.
For the Sugar Mamas and Papas, signing up for one of those sites says two things. "Screw it, I have nothing to offer someone except money" and "I lack the patience and social skills to find a partner that will stay with me for free."
Sadly many of the profiles looking for legal Sugar babes sound eerily similar to those posted on Craigslist looking for illegal prostitution.
Sadly, it seems fitting; some adult models use their same pictures and screen names from their Eros.com page. A page where high end strippers, adult models and even escorts advertise.
Some would argue that the SugarBabes and nothing more than legal prostitutes, but in all fairness. Users are not allowed to explicitly say they will do certain sex acts for a certain sum of money. Are a number of the women and men on these sites escorts? Most defiantly, but I don't feel that the majority are.
Beyond the world of sugar, where one partner is usually married and looking for a younger single companion there is market for married folks that simply want to have a fling with another married person. The goal of these sites is to hook married people up so that both parties stay married.
Unlike the sugar daddy sites these sites come with a hefty fee for both parties, to receive unlimited emails and chat on ashleymadison.com one would have to pay a whopping $249 dollars every three months.
The site uses a credit system, so every time you talk, email or contact another member it cost you a certain amount of credits, like a wild adulterous carnival. The cost of 20 emails is about $49 dollars. Perhaps this is to deter married people that aren't serious, or just to exploit their weakness for monetary gain.
Surprisingly, sites like Ashley Madison and its skankier counterpart AffairMatch.com are extremely sexually charged. While the sugar sites ban members that talk about sex in their profiles these sites are the polar opposite.
Your profile is built mostly for you. You can pick options pre-made for you. When Ashley Madison.com asks you what you are looking for in a man, the choices sound more like your reading the back of a porno than descriptions of people.
Married hook up sites are like straight henny and no chaser, the Sugar sites dance around what they really are but AffairMatch.com smacks you in the face with it.
On its front page is plainly states they are the place to "Find a cheating spouse who finds comfort and satisfaction in marital infidelity" Both sites post numerous articles on the biological correctness of cheating as well as how to guides.
Every page you click through seems to try to convince users that what they're doing is "right" and may even lead to a healthier marriage. Perhaps because my moral compass is not currently set on a strong magnet, I find the idea of such a thing laughable.
The yin to the cheating spouses' yang is of course key logging programs. Ranging from free to well over $200 dollars, they can be downloaded or purchased and installed covertly onto the pc or laptop of the suspected Ho or man ho.
The programs come in many languages and for users of varying degrees of computer savvy. Some programs even automatically forward you all the mail that your spouse receives.
A free trick that is always a blow to the cheater is old reliable Google. If you suspect your partner of cheating, and you know the online ID that they usually use, pop the moniker into a search engine. All the profiles that they've created under that name will come up.
If you see AshleyMadison.com as one of them, the next thing you should pop into the search bar is "divorce lawyer".
© Copyright 2009 Observer
Frederick Knott dialed M for murder, but millions of users are logging on to commit their cardinal sins.
The internet super highway for many leads them straight to adultery. Not only are people finding digital solutions to their seven year itch, but sites are making hundreds of thousands of dollars a year exploiting them.
From high end mistress brokers to sleazy sex hookup sites infidelity online is big business.
The approach of each site is a little different; some don't concern themselves completely with married men and women, while others are pretty explicit concerning jump starting affairs.
One of the most common less in your face, facet of internet adultery is the phenomenon of Sugar Daddies/Mommies and babes sites. The sites are plentiful and usually don't mention affairs, but you can usually choose what type of relationship you're after. One of the most common seen on profiles are "discrete relationships"
The Sugar Daddy Baby sites range in price from 19.95 a month to 35.95 a month with the gold-diggers - er- "sugar babes" usually paying the higher price. Ironically the most expensive of these sites MillionaireMate.com seems to be the same group of people that have joined Passion.com and AdultFriendFinder.com. You are paying 35.95 a month for the same guy that is worth 12.99 on another site.
On many they urge people to maintain a "classy demeanor", like on SugarDaddie.com.
I think this is pretty impossible. Even if you are wearing a turtle neck and wool slacks and none of your body is showing you are still auctioning off your body to the highest bidder in hopes that you will get money and gifts for simply being attractive.
I really can't think of a more classless and disrespectful act that a person can put their body through.
To be fair , on there are many profiles and posts on Sugar daddy websites that simply reek of desperation, while the sob stories posted are more than half the time fabrications, I'm sure the person that put them up was in a desperate bind.
Unfortunately, there are many people that seem just clueless. At 45 years old, no person should be calling themselves a "baby" and they really shouldn't be trying to live off their looks.
No matter how desperate their situation, I really think the sugar daddy route is not the best choice for them.
For the Sugar Mamas and Papas, signing up for one of those sites says two things. "Screw it, I have nothing to offer someone except money" and "I lack the patience and social skills to find a partner that will stay with me for free."
Sadly many of the profiles looking for legal Sugar babes sound eerily similar to those posted on Craigslist looking for illegal prostitution.
Sadly, it seems fitting; some adult models use their same pictures and screen names from their Eros.com page. A page where high end strippers, adult models and even escorts advertise.
Some would argue that the SugarBabes and nothing more than legal prostitutes, but in all fairness. Users are not allowed to explicitly say they will do certain sex acts for a certain sum of money. Are a number of the women and men on these sites escorts? Most defiantly, but I don't feel that the majority are.
Beyond the world of sugar, where one partner is usually married and looking for a younger single companion there is market for married folks that simply want to have a fling with another married person. The goal of these sites is to hook married people up so that both parties stay married.
Unlike the sugar daddy sites these sites come with a hefty fee for both parties, to receive unlimited emails and chat on ashleymadison.com one would have to pay a whopping $249 dollars every three months.
The site uses a credit system, so every time you talk, email or contact another member it cost you a certain amount of credits, like a wild adulterous carnival. The cost of 20 emails is about $49 dollars. Perhaps this is to deter married people that aren't serious, or just to exploit their weakness for monetary gain.
Surprisingly, sites like Ashley Madison and its skankier counterpart AffairMatch.com are extremely sexually charged. While the sugar sites ban members that talk about sex in their profiles these sites are the polar opposite.
Your profile is built mostly for you. You can pick options pre-made for you. When Ashley Madison.com asks you what you are looking for in a man, the choices sound more like your reading the back of a porno than descriptions of people.
Married hook up sites are like straight henny and no chaser, the Sugar sites dance around what they really are but AffairMatch.com smacks you in the face with it.
On its front page is plainly states they are the place to "Find a cheating spouse who finds comfort and satisfaction in marital infidelity" Both sites post numerous articles on the biological correctness of cheating as well as how to guides.
Every page you click through seems to try to convince users that what they're doing is "right" and may even lead to a healthier marriage. Perhaps because my moral compass is not currently set on a strong magnet, I find the idea of such a thing laughable.
The yin to the cheating spouses' yang is of course key logging programs. Ranging from free to well over $200 dollars, they can be downloaded or purchased and installed covertly onto the pc or laptop of the suspected Ho or man ho.
The programs come in many languages and for users of varying degrees of computer savvy. Some programs even automatically forward you all the mail that your spouse receives.
A free trick that is always a blow to the cheater is old reliable Google. If you suspect your partner of cheating, and you know the online ID that they usually use, pop the moniker into a search engine. All the profiles that they've created under that name will come up.
If you see AshleyMadison.com as one of them, the next thing you should pop into the search bar is "divorce lawyer".
© Copyright 2009 Observer
OMG SHOES! : Online Shopping addiction
orginal print : 3/11/08
I, Sheena Quashie, was an addict. My Internet connection as well as friends and family have been enabling me for at least 4 years. I've been a fiend drooling at the mouth of every email promising savings, with my bank card info memorized.
My addiction?
Shopping.
I can remember the first time I made a purchase online. It was blouse from BabyPhat.com; it was a steal for only $39.95: a fraction of the original cost. The shirt was a size too big a month later.
Since that purchase I've been mouse-clicking my troubles away.
Got a bad grade? Buy shirt.
Feeling a little down? How about some 300 dollar shoes that you'll NEVER wear.
This was my life.
My shopping had got so bad at one point when I was living in the Robert Treat that my roommate made me round up all my purchases and start tossing or at least moving out of the room so we had room to move around.
I had crammed clothes and shoes where ever they could fit. I had over 40 pairs of shoes that I had never worn. There was over 300 dollars worth of lingerie still in the box that it was delivered in. Not to mention the $2,500 card that I had already maxed out that I was only making bare minimum payment on.
My closet was full of clothes and shoes with tags still on them or receipts in the box - just in case I needed to return them to get more clothes. I was even shipping things from my job to hide them from my worried suitemates.
I was a shopoholic, and online stores were my favorite destination. I have never ate, smoked or ingested any type of illegal drug. So I won't begin to try to compare the two; all I know was that when I was shopping I felt good, and when I wasn't I didn't.
I had never noticed how much of my online time was spent buying crap, until I noticed that I was no longer buying groceries, doing laundry on campus or even going to events - all so I could expand my shopping budget.
Shopping addiction is just like any other non-narcotic-based addiction, according to Prof. Ruth Engs, RN, EdD of the University of Indiana's website. Only instead of eating crack, you're "buying to get a high, or get a 'rush' just like a drug or alcohol addict."
It was a slow process, but I finally broke my cycle. I cut up my card and just paid off the bills, making payments well above the minimums.
I also cut down on clothing purchases by asking myself to imagine three occasions where I would wear any garment.
If I thought a garment was only good to wear to the club, I had to remind myself that I haven't been up in the club for at least a year.
Most importantly, I put a barrier between me and ads. I was always weakest when caught off guard, when I was browsing my favorite forums or checking my Myspace.
An easy way to stop this is by right-clicking on ads and blocking their source.
I found many a stupid impulse buys started with a cleaver lure. Old navy once got 130 dollars from me with an ad asking "Do you like cashmere sweaters?"… OF COURSE I DO YOU ELECTRIC DEVIL.
In the same vein as blocking ads, I took myself off of every mailing list I could. I'll be damned if Zappos.com isn't the devil in disguise.
Impulse buying because someone is offering you $25 dollars off every $100 you spend is not saving money. You are losing $75 you never planned on spending.
Lastly I made a budget. It might seem obvious but writing your all of your purchases down BEFORE you finalize is a great roadblock against spending money.
If seeing your savings dwindle physically on paper doesn't stop you, I'm not sure anything will.
ARE YOU A SHOP-A-HOLIC?
According to Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, behaviors typical of compulsive shopping and spending include the following:
* Shopping or spending money as a result of feeling disappointed, angry or scared
* Shopping or spending habits causing emotional distress in one's life
* Having arguments with others about one's shopping or spending habits
* Feeling lost without credit cards
* Buying items on credit that would not be bought with cash
* Feeling a rush of euphoria and anxiety when spending money
* Feeling guilty, ashamed, embarrassed or confused after shopping or spending money
* Lying to others about purchases made or how much money was spent
* Thinking excessively about money
* Spending a lot of time juggling accounts or bills to accommodate spending
Identification of four or more of the above behaviors indicates a possible problem with shopping or spending.
Rutgers Health Services has councilors that can help you deal with these types of problems.
Center Hours:
M-F, 8:30am - 4:30pm
Center Location: 2
49 University Avenue, Blumenthal Hall, Room 104 Phone: 973-353-5231
© Copyright 2009 Observer
I, Sheena Quashie, was an addict. My Internet connection as well as friends and family have been enabling me for at least 4 years. I've been a fiend drooling at the mouth of every email promising savings, with my bank card info memorized.
My addiction?
Shopping.
I can remember the first time I made a purchase online. It was blouse from BabyPhat.com; it was a steal for only $39.95: a fraction of the original cost. The shirt was a size too big a month later.
Since that purchase I've been mouse-clicking my troubles away.
Got a bad grade? Buy shirt.
Feeling a little down? How about some 300 dollar shoes that you'll NEVER wear.
This was my life.
My shopping had got so bad at one point when I was living in the Robert Treat that my roommate made me round up all my purchases and start tossing or at least moving out of the room so we had room to move around.
I had crammed clothes and shoes where ever they could fit. I had over 40 pairs of shoes that I had never worn. There was over 300 dollars worth of lingerie still in the box that it was delivered in. Not to mention the $2,500 card that I had already maxed out that I was only making bare minimum payment on.
My closet was full of clothes and shoes with tags still on them or receipts in the box - just in case I needed to return them to get more clothes. I was even shipping things from my job to hide them from my worried suitemates.
I was a shopoholic, and online stores were my favorite destination. I have never ate, smoked or ingested any type of illegal drug. So I won't begin to try to compare the two; all I know was that when I was shopping I felt good, and when I wasn't I didn't.
I had never noticed how much of my online time was spent buying crap, until I noticed that I was no longer buying groceries, doing laundry on campus or even going to events - all so I could expand my shopping budget.
Shopping addiction is just like any other non-narcotic-based addiction, according to Prof. Ruth Engs, RN, EdD of the University of Indiana's website. Only instead of eating crack, you're "buying to get a high, or get a 'rush' just like a drug or alcohol addict."
It was a slow process, but I finally broke my cycle. I cut up my card and just paid off the bills, making payments well above the minimums.
I also cut down on clothing purchases by asking myself to imagine three occasions where I would wear any garment.
If I thought a garment was only good to wear to the club, I had to remind myself that I haven't been up in the club for at least a year.
Most importantly, I put a barrier between me and ads. I was always weakest when caught off guard, when I was browsing my favorite forums or checking my Myspace.
An easy way to stop this is by right-clicking on ads and blocking their source.
I found many a stupid impulse buys started with a cleaver lure. Old navy once got 130 dollars from me with an ad asking "Do you like cashmere sweaters?"… OF COURSE I DO YOU ELECTRIC DEVIL.
In the same vein as blocking ads, I took myself off of every mailing list I could. I'll be damned if Zappos.com isn't the devil in disguise.
Impulse buying because someone is offering you $25 dollars off every $100 you spend is not saving money. You are losing $75 you never planned on spending.
Lastly I made a budget. It might seem obvious but writing your all of your purchases down BEFORE you finalize is a great roadblock against spending money.
If seeing your savings dwindle physically on paper doesn't stop you, I'm not sure anything will.
ARE YOU A SHOP-A-HOLIC?
According to Illinois Institute for Addiction Recovery, behaviors typical of compulsive shopping and spending include the following:
* Shopping or spending money as a result of feeling disappointed, angry or scared
* Shopping or spending habits causing emotional distress in one's life
* Having arguments with others about one's shopping or spending habits
* Feeling lost without credit cards
* Buying items on credit that would not be bought with cash
* Feeling a rush of euphoria and anxiety when spending money
* Feeling guilty, ashamed, embarrassed or confused after shopping or spending money
* Lying to others about purchases made or how much money was spent
* Thinking excessively about money
* Spending a lot of time juggling accounts or bills to accommodate spending
Identification of four or more of the above behaviors indicates a possible problem with shopping or spending.
Rutgers Health Services has councilors that can help you deal with these types of problems.
Center Hours:
M-F, 8:30am - 4:30pm
Center Location: 2
49 University Avenue, Blumenthal Hall, Room 104 Phone: 973-353-5231
© Copyright 2009 Observer
THE INTERNET BREAKUP
original print : 2/26/08
February is at its end and thus dumping season is on.
All the people that were too chicken to get rid of their insignificant other before V-day are now dumping all the excess baggage. Networking sites and more are all filled with ammunition in the war to save face that is being fought in the hearts of many.
For the net savvy there are many options in going about showing the world how butt-hurt you are over being dispatched by your sweetie. For those that have done the dispatching and are looking for the most cold-hearted way to call it quits since the text message break up, the options are even greater.
When your heart is broken, you might be in such a weak emotional state that you are under the delusion that people on the internet care about your problems.This is a mistake; sometimes a grave mistake.
Everything you post about how horrible your ex was will no doubt be used as ammunition against you later to prove what a weak idiot you made yourself out to be.
When we're upset, sometimes we as human beings, have the tendency to overstate things. What you might not see through your blood-shot teary eyes is, that if you make your ex-lover seem like a filthy Lothario, everyone on your favorite forum will now think that you are a big old box of AIDS.
The longer the relationship, the more horrible an idea it is to bad mouth your ex, especially if you two happen to post on the same forum. This is especially true if you met your ex on that forum. Not only did you make an internet hook up into a relationship ( which should be a cardinal sin), you are now going to automatically be the bad guy for trying to pit the entire site on your lost love.
Bow out gracefully.
If you share the same cyber spaces spare everyone the spectacle and just take a break. You don't need to put a message on his/her Facebook wall to broadcast to the world that they are scum.
If someone is in a person's top 10, not only do they already know said person is scum, but they are pretty okay with it. After all is said and done with, you only made yourself the fool for putting your own business out there.
Not only that, but when you tell the internet terrible things about a person, nothing is stopping them from doing the same to you.
If a picture has been posted on the net once, it's there forever.
FOREVER.
Those cell phone pics you let him take when you both got drunk. Forever.
The picture she took of you wearing her panties during that fit of post coital giddiness.
Forever.
How many of us have come across a video of a random college strip shaking her money maker in front of the camera but not before she tells her beau "this is only for you , don't show anyone else , You promise right?" WRONG.
So before you make that entry on Dontdatehimgirl.com, or post her nudes in the revenge section of your favorite image boards, think about what you're doing.
The lulz will run dry, and in the end you'll only be left with your own bitterness about the situation.
Not to mention, now all virtual foot prints will point to you being a completely un-datable psychopath.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
February is at its end and thus dumping season is on.
All the people that were too chicken to get rid of their insignificant other before V-day are now dumping all the excess baggage. Networking sites and more are all filled with ammunition in the war to save face that is being fought in the hearts of many.
For the net savvy there are many options in going about showing the world how butt-hurt you are over being dispatched by your sweetie. For those that have done the dispatching and are looking for the most cold-hearted way to call it quits since the text message break up, the options are even greater.
When your heart is broken, you might be in such a weak emotional state that you are under the delusion that people on the internet care about your problems.This is a mistake; sometimes a grave mistake.
Everything you post about how horrible your ex was will no doubt be used as ammunition against you later to prove what a weak idiot you made yourself out to be.
When we're upset, sometimes we as human beings, have the tendency to overstate things. What you might not see through your blood-shot teary eyes is, that if you make your ex-lover seem like a filthy Lothario, everyone on your favorite forum will now think that you are a big old box of AIDS.
The longer the relationship, the more horrible an idea it is to bad mouth your ex, especially if you two happen to post on the same forum. This is especially true if you met your ex on that forum. Not only did you make an internet hook up into a relationship ( which should be a cardinal sin), you are now going to automatically be the bad guy for trying to pit the entire site on your lost love.
Bow out gracefully.
If you share the same cyber spaces spare everyone the spectacle and just take a break. You don't need to put a message on his/her Facebook wall to broadcast to the world that they are scum.
If someone is in a person's top 10, not only do they already know said person is scum, but they are pretty okay with it. After all is said and done with, you only made yourself the fool for putting your own business out there.
Not only that, but when you tell the internet terrible things about a person, nothing is stopping them from doing the same to you.
If a picture has been posted on the net once, it's there forever.
FOREVER.
Those cell phone pics you let him take when you both got drunk. Forever.
The picture she took of you wearing her panties during that fit of post coital giddiness.
Forever.
How many of us have come across a video of a random college strip shaking her money maker in front of the camera but not before she tells her beau "this is only for you , don't show anyone else , You promise right?" WRONG.
So before you make that entry on Dontdatehimgirl.com, or post her nudes in the revenge section of your favorite image boards, think about what you're doing.
The lulz will run dry, and in the end you'll only be left with your own bitterness about the situation.
Not to mention, now all virtual foot prints will point to you being a completely un-datable psychopath.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
Typing While Black
orginal pring: 2/19/08
Are the rumors true…are you really … BLACK?"
This was an IM that my brother received from one of his fellow World of WarCraft guild members.
It had never crossed that young man's mind that the people that he spent his time with online did not look like him. I've had many a similar experience.
I cannot try to speak for all women of the African Diaspora, but I can recall how my ethnicity and gender has influenced my internet experience.
Growing up an engineer's daughter, I always embraced anything tech and everything electronic. I can remember helping my father build the family's first frankenputer out of parts he salvaged from other machines at his job. It didn't have a CD-ROM drive and it ran on Windows 3.1, but it was my first gateway to this crazy internet thing.
My parents being ever so overprotective made sure that I was forbidden from ever sharing any of my pictures with my new-found AOL chat buddies.
My first taste of internet anonymity. It amazed me what freedom I had with a black profile and no picture.
I learned pretty quickly that online, I wasn't a little West Indian girl; I was assumed a white male child, unless I typed differently.
Even then half of the people I encountered thought I was joking. It was the first time in my life that I realized that there were people with dramatically different views of the world.
When I was older and finally had a PC of my own to dabble with, I noticed just how differently people would treat me once the dreaded "post your picture" topic came up in whatever message board I was on. No matter what the topic of the board, be it a board about dating, gardening or videogames, suddenly I wasn't just FoxyChoklatRobot: I was "the black girl".
This usually entailed being walleyed by all sorts of questions from curious non-black internet users. Some would ask ridiculous things like "What kind of black are you?" or "Do you speak that click language in Trinidad?" and my favorite" Can you teach me how to talk ghetto?"
It always put me in an awkward situation; by revealing that I was not a white woman, I instantly became the spokesperson for every black person who ever lived. If any situation would arise that involved any black man woman or child, I was now supposed to be the expert.
This was troubling to me because as a West Indian, I listened to mostly dance hall reggae and soca, so I can't name every Tupac song ever recorded, nor did I feel that instant mental bond that some of these posters believed all people of color had with others.
It seemed to me more often than not that I was usually forced to lose my individuality to my race. I found myself constantly being categorized; annoyingly I saw that most felt that it would be insane to categorize others in the same fashion.
I have never asked a random white person on any message board, "Hey, so I hear you people kiss your dogs on the mouth, yes or no?" So it boggled my mind as to why someone would feel the need to ask me, "Do black women want to be white?"
How on earth can I answer that question? I don't know all black women...
If I refused to answer the questions; I was labeled a "coconut" or a stereotypical black b-tch. After about a year of this, I found myself gravating to sites like BlackPlanet.com, LipstickAlley.com and other sites that were designed to cater to black women. It was a feeling of guilty relief.
As much as I wanted too, I had a hard time shaking off the feelings of alienation that I felt in many other communities despite having joined with the intent of sharing a common interest.
I hated the fact that my ethnicity made my thoughts become fringe opinions rather than just another voice in the myriad of voices that makes up any community.
I don't think that most of the people that I came across even realized how they were making me feel. Some people where from parts of the country and world where they never saw a black person with their bare eyes, let alone talked with one.
I felt guilty retreating, but it's an awful burden to expect any one person or small group of people to be a mouthpiece for their entire culture, class or race.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
Are the rumors true…are you really … BLACK?"
This was an IM that my brother received from one of his fellow World of WarCraft guild members.
It had never crossed that young man's mind that the people that he spent his time with online did not look like him. I've had many a similar experience.
I cannot try to speak for all women of the African Diaspora, but I can recall how my ethnicity and gender has influenced my internet experience.
Growing up an engineer's daughter, I always embraced anything tech and everything electronic. I can remember helping my father build the family's first frankenputer out of parts he salvaged from other machines at his job. It didn't have a CD-ROM drive and it ran on Windows 3.1, but it was my first gateway to this crazy internet thing.
My parents being ever so overprotective made sure that I was forbidden from ever sharing any of my pictures with my new-found AOL chat buddies.
My first taste of internet anonymity. It amazed me what freedom I had with a black profile and no picture.
I learned pretty quickly that online, I wasn't a little West Indian girl; I was assumed a white male child, unless I typed differently.
Even then half of the people I encountered thought I was joking. It was the first time in my life that I realized that there were people with dramatically different views of the world.
When I was older and finally had a PC of my own to dabble with, I noticed just how differently people would treat me once the dreaded "post your picture" topic came up in whatever message board I was on. No matter what the topic of the board, be it a board about dating, gardening or videogames, suddenly I wasn't just FoxyChoklatRobot: I was "the black girl".
This usually entailed being walleyed by all sorts of questions from curious non-black internet users. Some would ask ridiculous things like "What kind of black are you?" or "Do you speak that click language in Trinidad?" and my favorite" Can you teach me how to talk ghetto?"
It always put me in an awkward situation; by revealing that I was not a white woman, I instantly became the spokesperson for every black person who ever lived. If any situation would arise that involved any black man woman or child, I was now supposed to be the expert.
This was troubling to me because as a West Indian, I listened to mostly dance hall reggae and soca, so I can't name every Tupac song ever recorded, nor did I feel that instant mental bond that some of these posters believed all people of color had with others.
It seemed to me more often than not that I was usually forced to lose my individuality to my race. I found myself constantly being categorized; annoyingly I saw that most felt that it would be insane to categorize others in the same fashion.
I have never asked a random white person on any message board, "Hey, so I hear you people kiss your dogs on the mouth, yes or no?" So it boggled my mind as to why someone would feel the need to ask me, "Do black women want to be white?"
How on earth can I answer that question? I don't know all black women...
If I refused to answer the questions; I was labeled a "coconut" or a stereotypical black b-tch. After about a year of this, I found myself gravating to sites like BlackPlanet.com, LipstickAlley.com and other sites that were designed to cater to black women. It was a feeling of guilty relief.
As much as I wanted too, I had a hard time shaking off the feelings of alienation that I felt in many other communities despite having joined with the intent of sharing a common interest.
I hated the fact that my ethnicity made my thoughts become fringe opinions rather than just another voice in the myriad of voices that makes up any community.
I don't think that most of the people that I came across even realized how they were making me feel. Some people where from parts of the country and world where they never saw a black person with their bare eyes, let alone talked with one.
I felt guilty retreating, but it's an awful burden to expect any one person or small group of people to be a mouthpiece for their entire culture, class or race.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
Logging on for love...(you losers are going to die alone!)
originalprint 2/12/08
February the 14 th is fast approaching, you had a year to get your stuff straight yet here you sit, Valentine-less yet again.
I know , you almost went on a date, but you had that 40 man raid, and your guild was counting on you. Don't fret, it's not to late for you, you basement dwelling sad hunk of nerd.
There are many options available to get a quick V-day hook up in just under 100 clicks or a hundred dollars.
The key to successful online love is being truthful with your evaluation of yourself. You have to pick a website that matches your unique level of pathetic or weird.
For the basic run of the mill dork, Myspace is your best bet, but be wary as your competing against individuals with actual social skills and possibly charisma.
This might be too much for you, but if you are brave enough to venture into the social network web Myspace is a great way to go.
For those that like their potential dates ethnically categorized you can try BlackPlanet.com, Migente.com or AsianAve.com.
Success on these sites is all about pictures. Pictures for these sites should be taken in your bathroom and in the most awkward angles humanly possible. So if you break mirrors with your smile, or make babies cry you might want to find another way to get that oh-so-elusive-internet cutty.
If you can't handle your own on Myspace there are more desperate means of achieving human contact.
It may take a turn for the weird but Craigslist.org isn't only for buying other people's garage sale leftovers, now you can get the emotionally damaged leftovers of relationships.
The traffic from normal people making purchases create an off chance that you might find a regular good natured miss or fellow that is just open to trying something new.
Of course the majority of people posting are either there looking for email addresses to terrorize or are attention seekers wondering how many responses they'll get.
Sadly half of the posts in the dating section of Craiglist look like this:
Buttsecks?? - m4w - 31
In the back seat of my Kia?
* Location: Samsung Dong
So you might have to do some soul searching and ask yourself how much you really want that V-day sweetie.
Urchins of society aside, it's going to pretty easy to hook up with someone.
Of course after you do the Craiglist.com hook up the only place you'll be able to find a Valentine will be HerpesDating.com.
In the off chance that you can't score someone who can stand to be around you on Cupid day you could dig a little deeper in the bucket of sadness that is the internet dating pool, or perhaps you just have to find a more captive audience.
Sometimes you have to find someone that is amazingly more desperate than yourself, like the incarcerated!
To a woman that hasn't seen any other men than the ones that lock her cell you might seem like quite a catch.
Sadly internet access is forbidden in US correctional institutions but the good people at Meet-An-Inmate.com took the trouble of finding social and non lethal looking inmates that are open to having pen pal relationships.
It will be like one of those old period movies where two lovers have no other correspondence except the postman, the only difference is your sweetie is doing hard time.
Even more convenient for you is the fact the Meet-an-Inmate.com makes sure to tell you when your inmate's parole is up. That way you can skedaddle before the hearing, least this jail bird actually tries to track you down.
Now let's say that even women behind bars want nothing to do with you, no worries, if you can afford an average of 20 to 22.50 dollars a month you can skip the human aspect of a relationship all together.
You only need this valentine to prove to your family that you aren't going to die alone.
Well, why draw another person into your web of lies; just order a relationship, you can buy love with a PayPal account.
With Imaginarygirlfriend.com you can prove something to yourself with out the burden of guilt that you are lying to another human being.
They supply you with picture of your "girlfriend" that you can Photoshop yourself into, hand written letters sprayed with your "girlfriend"'s perfume, panties and some even will leave messages on your answering machine.
Pathetic? Yes.
Weird? Most certainly, but you wanted a valentine right?
© Copyright 2009 Observer
February the 14 th is fast approaching, you had a year to get your stuff straight yet here you sit, Valentine-less yet again.
I know , you almost went on a date, but you had that 40 man raid, and your guild was counting on you. Don't fret, it's not to late for you, you basement dwelling sad hunk of nerd.
There are many options available to get a quick V-day hook up in just under 100 clicks or a hundred dollars.
The key to successful online love is being truthful with your evaluation of yourself. You have to pick a website that matches your unique level of pathetic or weird.
For the basic run of the mill dork, Myspace is your best bet, but be wary as your competing against individuals with actual social skills and possibly charisma.
This might be too much for you, but if you are brave enough to venture into the social network web Myspace is a great way to go.
For those that like their potential dates ethnically categorized you can try BlackPlanet.com, Migente.com or AsianAve.com.
Success on these sites is all about pictures. Pictures for these sites should be taken in your bathroom and in the most awkward angles humanly possible. So if you break mirrors with your smile, or make babies cry you might want to find another way to get that oh-so-elusive-internet cutty.
If you can't handle your own on Myspace there are more desperate means of achieving human contact.
It may take a turn for the weird but Craigslist.org isn't only for buying other people's garage sale leftovers, now you can get the emotionally damaged leftovers of relationships.
The traffic from normal people making purchases create an off chance that you might find a regular good natured miss or fellow that is just open to trying something new.
Of course the majority of people posting are either there looking for email addresses to terrorize or are attention seekers wondering how many responses they'll get.
Sadly half of the posts in the dating section of Craiglist look like this:
Buttsecks?? - m4w - 31
In the back seat of my Kia?
* Location: Samsung Dong
So you might have to do some soul searching and ask yourself how much you really want that V-day sweetie.
Urchins of society aside, it's going to pretty easy to hook up with someone.
Of course after you do the Craiglist.com hook up the only place you'll be able to find a Valentine will be HerpesDating.com.
In the off chance that you can't score someone who can stand to be around you on Cupid day you could dig a little deeper in the bucket of sadness that is the internet dating pool, or perhaps you just have to find a more captive audience.
Sometimes you have to find someone that is amazingly more desperate than yourself, like the incarcerated!
To a woman that hasn't seen any other men than the ones that lock her cell you might seem like quite a catch.
Sadly internet access is forbidden in US correctional institutions but the good people at Meet-An-Inmate.com took the trouble of finding social and non lethal looking inmates that are open to having pen pal relationships.
It will be like one of those old period movies where two lovers have no other correspondence except the postman, the only difference is your sweetie is doing hard time.
Even more convenient for you is the fact the Meet-an-Inmate.com makes sure to tell you when your inmate's parole is up. That way you can skedaddle before the hearing, least this jail bird actually tries to track you down.
Now let's say that even women behind bars want nothing to do with you, no worries, if you can afford an average of 20 to 22.50 dollars a month you can skip the human aspect of a relationship all together.
You only need this valentine to prove to your family that you aren't going to die alone.
Well, why draw another person into your web of lies; just order a relationship, you can buy love with a PayPal account.
With Imaginarygirlfriend.com you can prove something to yourself with out the burden of guilt that you are lying to another human being.
They supply you with picture of your "girlfriend" that you can Photoshop yourself into, hand written letters sprayed with your "girlfriend"'s perfume, panties and some even will leave messages on your answering machine.
Pathetic? Yes.
Weird? Most certainly, but you wanted a valentine right?
© Copyright 2009 Observer
Where's the Beef?
origial print: 2/5/08
Long ago, before people had Myspace and camera phones, when someone had a qualm with someone else, they were forced to deal with it face to face, or at least through a convoluted web of other people they've influenced.That is not so today.
Thanks to the networking power of the internet ruining the life of another person over a minor squabble can be done in the comfort of your own home or in less than five minutes.
Sadly people have gotten wise and many are paying the price, but WHY?
I have never understood why people take things said over the internet to heart.
Message boards and newsgroups have always been, and most likely will always be popular on the internet.
They are one of the easiest ways to connect with people, drawing in people from all walks of life, age ranges and beliefs. It's no wonder that people or "fonts" clash from time to time.
What does leave me bewildered is that fact that some people log off and go to sleep at night angry about what a person they've never met and have no personal ties to, said about them on the internet.
It leaves an even more bitter taste in my mouth when I read about adults acting like catty pre-teen girls and squabble so distastefully and publicly.
In my opinion, there is something wrong with a person that can have actual malice against a figure they've complied in their head from a screen name.
If you can't even be sure what the gender of the person you are e-fighting with is, does it really matter what they say?
Are you really going to drive across the country in a diaper to smack them in the mouth because they pointed out your poor grammar, or made fun of your social standards?
If you've answer "yes" to that question, then you not only need to get off of the 'net, you need to get into a padded room.
When the e-fight stop being entertaining , and let's face it they always start out pretty good, at the end of the day it's sad to see two people that could have been friends have so much hatred for each other.
Even worse when people use the internet against someone they used to call a friend.
I'm sure everyone is now familiar with the case of the Myspace suicide which involved a young girl being tricked by the parents of another girl into thinking a handsome boy liked her, only to kill herself when the adults controlling the fake account berated and ridiculed her.
Sometimes words hurt, even though they shouldn't be taken seriously.
You may never know what kind of impact your words may have on another human being.
What might roll off your back might permanently scar another.
It doesn't take that much effort to dig for embarassing photo of someone as cams malfunction, people make poor choices about what sort of pics to put on Facebook or Myspace, and hell sometimes it "just seemed like a good idea at the time."
Posting those in the right places at the right time can be a pretty effective weapon against another person… but why bother?
Will you feel better at the end of the day?
Will it make the world a better place?
NO.
It usually only escalates situations that could easily be squashed if the two parties talked like civil adults.
Besides…the other person was most likely just in it for the "lulz" anyway.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
When old and new media collide
Oringially printed: 1/22/08
Am I the only one that notices just how lazily old media has been piggy backing on new media to try to seem "hip" and "in the know"?It always comes off like hearing your mother try to use slang properly, alienating and wrong.
Why do respected news organizations find it necessary to write story after story about Second Life, why do I keep on seeing recycled YouTube videos on TV shows.
I remember a time not to long ago when I could turn on a TV and watch a well written show, okay not well written, but it wasn't shot on a grainy cell phone camera.
What I also appreciated is that my disposable entertainment didn't mesh with my TV or movies.
Now there is a parade of movie that looks like they were lifted right off of Break.com.
Even greats like George Romero are falling into this pit. His new movie Diary of the Dead is shot to look like footage caught on a camcorder,While a group of good looking young people talk about their feelings.
Why can't we go back to a time where no one felt that just because they had feelings they were important enough to be heard?
Why can't movies be happy being their own genre without trying to imitate bored college kids with webcams?
The worst is when shows lazily play the same clips all your friends have sent you in secession and call it original. VH1 is one of the biggest offenders with their Web Junk series.
If it's junk then why show it?
Why bother showing the most popular of clips, these are the ones that everyone has seen before.
If anything they can at least strive to show something new or - gasp- make original content.
It doesn't make sense , TV wants to get back viewers lost to online content.How is showing the same content repeatedly, which will only bring more people to the site that originated it, bring viewers back to TV?
While this might break the hearts of all the "webcelebs" out there, but there is a good reason why they are internet famous and not actually famous, this is perfectly explained by the career (or lack there of) of one Miss Tila Tequila.
The things makes one a scream on Myspace doesn't translate well to other facets of entertainment.
Generally making you just plain annoying especially when you can't sing, dance, act or doing anything other than swing on a pole and have oddly shaped implants.
Women of that caliber should stay on the hoods of imported cars and off of my television screen.
Now when mindless entertainment gets lazy I'm annoyed but not as disappointed when respectable news sources fall into the same routine.
Every month or so I catch some news organization that I once respected falling for the hype around Linden Lab's dull and sometimes downright bizarre Second Life.
Second Life is one line joke for most in the MMORPG playing field, if a bunch of ever-virgins aren't taking this seriously why on earth is CNN or MSNBC?
These news organizations are clamoring to classify and report on something that most likely won't even be here in two years. What for?
Even G4TV, a channel that is dedicated to mindless web junk, doesn't want to report on what they called "Second Hype".
Every over hyped report just feeds into the whirlpool of frivolousness that is Second Life. These organizations don't have to pander to this media hungry void.
It seems like every time Linden Labs has a new press release suddenly news outlets care, trying to be the most "in the know" organization.
Well, in actuality those in the know, know that the average Second Life user only spends under fours hours a month online, in fact according to the Yankee Group , global connectivity experts "less than one percent of the total Resident population engages in the site [Second Life] in a regular and sustained fashion."
I have yet to see World of War Craft or GaiaOnline.com written about monthly in economic news.
No matter how you feel about these sites, you can't deny the fact that they are pulling in a lot more unique visitors than Second Life.
Where is the media hype about that? So why aren't they seen as news to the trend hungry?
Just because a company says they have the next big thing are you to just believe them?
Sadly with most news outlets, the answer is , "Yes". Lindon labs is having a parade for every press release that these poor gulible old media heads are eating up. Please.
There's nothing I hate more. An educated consumer acting like an air head.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
The video game industry's REAL problems
Observer columnist discusss the role women play in video games- from the good, to the bad, & the ugly
orginally printed: 11/6/07
When I opened the paper to the Life and Leisure section last week, I couldn't help but laugh.Not because I was at all amused with what I was seeing, but I found that the picture of a half-naked scene chick using two Game Boy Colors as nipple pasties with the caption "a look at the changes in video game culture" reflected more truly to culture than the article that accompanied it.
Of course, I agree that the video game industry is one that only Hollywood can match, bringing entertainment to a level of interactivity that was thought to be impossible 30 years ago. I also think that the representation of women in game and the treatment of women by the industry haven't really changed at all.
The gamer world still remains staunchly misogynist, heterosexist and, for the most part, racially insensitive.
Video games in America, for the most part, are made for the white male palate. Anyone who finds the images and messages of games unsavory are ignored or belittled. I have been a gamer for two decades and I've seen no real changes in the overall mentality of the industry.
From the dawn of gaming, the roles of women have been pretty weak. There is nothing new about the over sexing of women in games. One of the first female protagonists was a hooker, turning tricks in all her eight-bit glory. So I'm not shocked that 20 years later BloodRayne is topless in "Playboy," "The Guy Game" is rewarding you with "Girls Gone Wild"-esque clips and banging a hooker in the back of a stolen car give you health in "Grand Theft Auto 3". It seems that, even with more women working in the industry, things aren't looking up.
I grew up gaming; I beat my first game, "Contra," when I was five alongside my older brother.
I've since had my hands on every Nintendo gaming system, Sega Genesis, Nomad, CD, Game Gear and PlayStation One, Two and Three.
Hell, I even mess with Xbox every now and then.
All while, I've remained a snotty elitist PC gamer.
It is a constant tug of war inside me. There's the part of me that just wants to see what a new graphics engine can do or how an innovation is going to be utilized in the newest game. But there's still a part of me that wonders why I'm paying 60 dollars to see myself be misrepresented.
The older I get and the more advanced technology in games have become, the more I noticed females being poorly represented in games (or not being represented at all).
I remember "Def Jam Vendetta" on the GameCube. I couldn't wait to play this game. All the game magazines were going on and on about the new character customization.
One magazine touted you could make your character look like you no matter what you looked like. I couldn't wait to spend my entire winter break watching myself roundhouse kick Fat Joe in front of a NYC train.
Unfortunately my fantasies were never realized. There was a pretty good character customization tool; you could pick any body type, height and race. Even ethnic hairstyles were available.
But one thing your hero couldn't have was a vagina. All the women in game were girlfriends; they were bimbos who fought each other for your character's interest. You could trade girlfriends like one would a goat or maybe a shiny rock. The highest ranking of the flock was Carmen Electra, and the lowest was Shaniqua… I had in my hands the most innovative fighting game of 2004 and I couldn't enjoy it. I could no longer sit and watch myself be represented as quite literally a sideline ho whose only use is being arm candy and every now and then and picking a fight to win affections.
It's no wonder millions of women gamers flock to gender neutral games like "The Sims."
2006 saw the "Super Mario Bros." franchise's Princess Peach headlining her own game for the first time in the game's series history. Like many women interested in games I was eager to give this game a try, even though it is one of the pricier games available for the DS Lite.
What a disappointment. I was hopping to see the princess stomping goombas and killing boos. What I got was a bi-polar twit flopping around the Mushroom Kingdom crying because a prancing flower touched her.
What kind of message is this sending? Girl power comes by skipping your Zoloft?
Nuking that garbage game and smacking it with a hammer was the only thing that calmed my rage.
I didn't want to trade it in least some unsuspecting parent purchase it for their daughter.
I think in the coming years the video game industry will have to grow up, it will have to realize that it is not a little boys club and it will have to stop downplaying the roles of women.
It's insulting to the intelligence of all gamers.
The video game industry will be in much better shape when it wakes up and realizes that women will be more than happy to give our support and money when they see themselves in games as characters that they would want to be (and not characters that would look good in "Hustler").
© Copyright 2009 Observer
Interacial Dating Sites : Full of Crap
This was another article that I cuaght a lot of flack for, but only from people who were angry that I made fun of the name of thier site in the article... well that and I voiced my opinion of how full of crap I thought the majority of them were. As you can imagine that made me quite unpopular. I've since decided that some people are "happy in the matrix" and even if I think something is unhealthy and wierd it makes others happy. So to each their own and lets hope those nutjobs stay off this blog.original print: 11/6/07
There are thousands of dating sites and forums around. Some started as newsgroups in the early days of Yahoo and AOL. Others are newer to the game offering hot flash sites and of course porn (if you click long enough, all sites link back to porn).
Of these dating sites the most popular and common have been interracial groups.
It seems harmless enough, people uniting in love and fellowship despite the colors of their skin; doing their part to rid the world of injustice and bigotry one passionate union at a time.
Like a Vera Wang wedding dress on a 40-dollar Broad Street hooker, the net can take a good thing and make it bad, very very bad. With names like PollyWannaCracka.com, Aznlover.com and the thankfully now defunct "Mandingo Lovers" [ed. note: site was actually called "Mandigo Love"] how can anyone take these places seriously?
And how can anyone not resist messing with these people?
Stupid people in large numbers are dangerous, history has taught us this valuable lesson many times over.
In the information age of course not only are they dangerous they can be down right hilarious and a never ending source of morbid entertainment. This phenomenon has spawned an off shoot of humanity; sometimes basement dwelling- always hunched over a computer screen laughing at the misfortune of others, this thing is called a troll.
I am sad to say. a recovering troll-a-holic.
Last year, I found one of my most lulz worthy of targets, AznLover.com, which I can say I've been banned from at least 4 times. I was invited to through Myspace, by a woman who thought we were kindred sprits simply because my boyfriend was Korean, and her boyfriend was Korean also.
I'm sure it made a lot of sense to her: she's a white lower class 35-year old All-American Christian divorcee from the mid west with a vocational school education, and I'm a frist generation Black/Asian Caribbean agnostic middle class college student.
Obviously we see the world through the same eyes all thanks to the unifying effects of genitals.
It's widely known that when people date a person of another race they instantly become bonded with everyone else that has a beau of the same hue.
If the above paragraph made you want to punch a kitten in the face, then we see eye-to-eye.
So if you so choose to journey into this dank corner of the internet you too will be amused as I was.
It was not the first time some random person sent me an invite to some group or site.
Eventually I decided to make sure that no one would ever bother me with their crap again. I decided to troll with the strongest weapon in my arsenal - the truth.
Many sites have funny taglines like, "Love is Color Blind" or "Loving All Things Asian;" filled with stock photos of multi racial models that are somehow supposed to entice someone into joining. The easiest way to cause drama and get cheap laughs is to point out the faults in them.
Any place that has a tag line suggesting color blindness but is only supporting the relations of one race with others can easily be called out for bullock.
If you posted something like, "If love is color blind, then why does this site only allow white women and black men?"
It will be the equivalent of dropping some fresh meat in a pool or piranhas. Posters lament, spew hatred and of course type insults using numbers and letters and you will have at least twenty minutes of entertainment. After spending a few months looking around sites like this I've found a few similarities and sure finds on them.
Racism and homophobia: just because a site is promoting tolerance of two races won't stop them from spitting venomous hate about other races. Many of these sites won't even permit homosexuals joining. So love is love...unless you don't love in the correct color coded heterosexual fashion.
Many sites try to make their cause sound less shallow by trying to frame it as not just partner seeking, but some kind of socio-political revolution.
One Myspace group, "White women who want to be impregnated by black men," claims to not be about unprotected sex but trying to end racism through mixed children. It worked so well for Thomas Jefferson and Strom Thurman. How can they be wrong?
Vilification is always prominent. I suppose the weaker minded can never just say they are with someone of another race simply because that person is the best partner for them and they love them. It must be the sinister workings of another larger entity.
Asian men need white women to combat negative media stereotypes of them. Indian men and black Caribbean women need to unite against sexist English colonialism. Black men need to be soothed by gentle white lasses after being emasculated by evil calculating black welfare queens.
Stereotyping is always lingering around these sites. Either perceived as positives such as Asian woman are petite, attractive and smarter than western women or negative like white women have oversized vaginas.
Sentiments like these are repeated and ground into the psyche of users. These sites should stand against stereotyping, but unfortunately a good deal of the members are there because they are so enamored with the idea of another race. An idea that is constructed mostly out of stereotypes than actual cultural identity.
It's sad and ironic that sites that were mad to foster some kind of tolerant environment end up being the dumping ground for insecurities and anger.
Ultimately these sites are doing more damage to the reputations of interracial unions than anything else. How can a healthy relationship develop is one or both parties are having a relationship with the ethnicity or race of a person and not the actual person?
When I went on my first date with my boyfriend, he took me to a restaurant mostly filled with whites and Asians. I felt uneasy with all the stares coming our way. When I asked him about it he just smiled at me and told me, "Of course they're staring, you're the most beautiful girl in the room."
I wasn't a black girl, or a Caribbean girl. I was just the woman that he had the most interest in. You shouldn't love your [insert race here] partner; you should just love your partner.
If you don't feel the same way about the person you are with, perhaps you need to re-evaluate your reasons for being with them.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
Laptops, are not Free
Orginal Print: 10/16/07
"Free ring tones!" "Free cell phone!" "Free laptop!"Every time you go on MySpace it seems that someone is trying to give you something for nothing. You want that iPod? Here you go, no strings attached. Well those blinking banners are hiding more than just spyware.
In fact, most of the free sites out there might give you a free item, but with the time and money it took to qualify for the item. You could have went out and bought it.
These sites are built to lure users in with anything from free condoms or baby food to home computers and laptops.
What they don't mention when they advertise is that you only can get the items when you sign up for, and sometimes pay for, other offers. Not to mention give out your email address to every Tom, Dick and Harry that wants to "bot," "spam" or "hack" you.
In these websites' defense, yes, you are getting something without directly paying for it, but is it really worth it?
According to the fine print of www.getmyfreelaptop.com a consumer must "agree to receive solicitations, marketing materials and other communications from us and Sponsors via e-mail, telemarketing, direct marketing, mobile marketing and any other method."
I don't know how many people think that it's worth the risk of having your professor's e-mail bounce back to them because FreeCondoms.com decided that you might want to check out some kinda free Soulja Boy ringtones...over a hundred times.
Let's say that you have a brand new Gmail account and you want to see just how full you can get that inbox, and spam isn't an issue for you. Well, there's on more thing keeping you from that iBook of your dreams, you need to sign up for the right amount of sponsors, or if you are into condoms, the right about of points.
On Getmyfreelaptop.com after signing away my privacy and the personal information of one Mr. Ike Lyke Bigboughtts, I was asked to complete several surveys when I answered "no" the website stalled. It wouldn't take me any further until I said "yes" to at least one of them. I picked an offer for a $5,000 dollar shopping spree, all I had to do was take a survey on tobacco. Of course I don't use any kind of tobacco product and there was no option I could choose to say so, but it did ask me if I was interested in Smoker's rights. (Maybe the smokers and the furries can march on Washington together.)
I couldn't complete this survey because I didn't want to give them permission to spam my email or call my cell phone and the survey asks in the question: Are you legal age to use tobacco and do you give us permission to spam you to bejesus and back. They don't separate the two at all.
Everywhere I turned on the site, they were looking for a way for me to give them permission to email me junk, their worthless coupons, and more "free" offers. The kicker is that once I waded through all the surveys and submitted my email address to at least ten sites…I was nowhere near getting a laptop, Why - Because you need to sign up for and be approved for two different credit cards, to be considered for the computer.
If I had good credit, couldn't I just buy a computer? I don't understand how people let websites like this get away with jerking them around so. They are after your email info, your phone number and your address, so they can have access to you so they can shove a bunch of crap you don't need down your throat.
Don't fall for these sites, they're set up so they can get over on you. These free stuff sites are nothing more than the cyber version of a rider holding a carrot out on stick in front of a mule.
The poor animal is to focus on the carrot to think about where the rider is taking it.
© Copyright 2009 Observer
"The Sound and the Furries"
This article I would have to say is my secound most trouble making post, not becuase it upset the school , but becuase of the overwhelming feedback from angry furries who think that in opinion pieces writers look to please everyone... well we don't. I found it a little funny that most of the comments on the Rutgers Observer website pretty much proved me right.Oringial print 10/9/07
The internet has revolutionized the world, creating the global market place, making contact with almost anyone instantaneously possible, breaking down language and cultural barriers but most people don't care about that. The truth is it gives us a venue to gather around our bizarre sexual fetishes.
Oh, and we all have weird fetishes at least by net standards. I like to have coitus in the missionary position with the lights off with a person of the opposite gender that I have a monogamous relationship with. Shockingly enough, it is pretty hard to find someone with my point of view. I must be the most depraved of all.
My own puritan sexual values aside, I have no issue with the of fetish sites out there as long as they are legal and don't do any harm to people especially children, but there is one community that leaves an awful taste in my mouth: they call themselves Furries.
For those that don't know, the Furries or Furs are people who are enamored with the idea of anthropomorphic animals. So enamored in fact that they want to have sex with them. Yes, you read that right. The basis of Fur infatuation is obsession animal people, not kawaii neko cat girls, but a full on dog that just happens to be able to walk on two legs. Luckily for humanity, there are no dog people so to achieve their dream- Furs sometimes spend hundreds of dollars on "fur suits" so they can unleash their "fursona."
A fursona is what a furry thinks he or she really is. Some furs are quite convinced that they were born with animal spirits and thus construct suits or even go so far as to surgically alter their bodies so they can look more like the fox, wolf or even the griffin they really feel they are inside.
How a person can be born with the soul of a mythological creature is beyond me. I'm sure there is some furry logic that someone outside their fan-dom simply can't grasp, or they are simple bat crap insane. I'm leaning towards the latter. For those that can't afford the suits they settle for text based role play sex and poorly drawn cartoon porn called "Yiff."
I've seen weirder, sicker stuff on the net, but the Fur community is one of the few communities that have adopted a victim complex that is not only baffling; it's infuriating.
While wanting to manipulate your genitals to a picture of a horse man with lactating breasts being sodomized by an anthropomorphic Orca Whale is weird, so is wanting to do the same to a grown woman dressed like a little school girl; the main difference in that the latter is usually done in private or in specialized areas when appropriate. If I, for instance, got my rocks off dressing like a school girl with platform heels and pigtails, I would not expect to be able to do that at work without being penalized or fired. Many furs want their "fursona" to shine 24/7 and if interrupted, many seem to think they are experiencing persecution.
Cruising through one of the many live journal Furry communities, you can read thousands of accounts of alleged "Fursecution." One blogger laments about being fired from his office job for looking at "yiff," and how it was awful that he was fired for simply being a furry.
I'm sorry, but as far back as I can recall, looking at pornography of any kind was reason for termination. If you want to look at Simba and Nala do it people style- good for you, but not on company time, simple as that.
Another blogger writes about how she was forced to take off her "ears and tail" while at work, calling it mutilation. She then has the gall to compare her situation with that of a black co-worker who sports an afro. I can only look at this as innate insanity at its finest.
It is blogs and websites full of rants about the attacks on furs and the rights that furries mistakenly believe they have that have made them the target de jour of troll, ebuamers and various other internet superheroes. No one can really feel sorry for a group that spits in the face of other people that have truly been through persecution. No furry church has ever been torched - Furry is not an organized religion. No furry has ever been beaten and left to die on a fence because of their sexual orientation - because Furry is not a sexual orientation. No furry is being raped or killed because of their nationality, race, ethnicity or class. Being part of the Fur fan-dom doesn't fall under any of those categories. Furry is not a gender. Furry is not a disability. There can be no Furry genocide, Holocaust nor a Fur Trail of Tears.
When Furs seriously compare themselves to peoples that in actuality have been persecuted and continue to be discriminated against, it's laughable to a point and then it's just insulting. I also find it ironic that a group of people that claim to be animals have the audacity to say their basic human rights are being violated. Any Furry that says their freedom of speech is being violated need to re-take Civics 101. No one is saying Furs aren't allowed to say how much they want to have sex with stuffed animals, most just simply don't want to hear about it. Someone voicing an opposing view to yours is not a violation of your freedom of speech it is them exercising theirs. The first amendment is not a do-whatever-you-want card; it simply says that congress will pass no laws prohibiting certain things.
No where in the constitution does it say that if you want to do nutty things that people have to act as if you aren't completely out of your mind. If you make the choice to indulge in a fetish as extreme and bizarre as Fur then you have to prepare for the repercussions. Either deal with the fact that you are weirdoes to the majority of the planet or Yiff in hell, the choice is yours Furries.
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