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Archive for August, 2007

More Crackheads? With Guns?

So I could make this a long story, or a short one. It’s late, so I’ll opt for the latter. Long story short: someone walked by, asked a few questions from the street, and cops drove by and arrested him. His questions seemed, well, off – like he was trying to avoid suspicion by blending in with the local population. The cops stopped him even though he appeared to be talking to us (myself and the others out front).

A cop came by a few minutes later, asked if we knew the guy. He also informed us the guy was carrying a gun, which may have been used earlier in the day to fire 7 shots around the corner – a revenge-shooting for some gang activity south of town. I happened to have been around when those shots were fired. He also took a moment to inform us we live in a ‘bad neighborhood.’

Do we? Really? Most of the crackheads are nice folks. No one has shot at me or in my general direction. Hard to say. What do you think? I suppose its time I added a ‘crackhead’ tag to this blog.

When in Doubt, Write About Crackheads

Sometimes I get into a bit of a writing slump, or am simply stretched too thing between various projects. However, with my new place of residence I’ve found there’s always a wealth of potential material (literally) right outside my door. The only unfortunate part is that I don’t have video capability to actually record what goes on. Hope text is a bit entertaining at least.

Sometimes I sit on my porch with a laptop watching the world go by, or I sit at my desk near a window on the second floor looking out. At least once a day I see what appears to be crackheads and dealers going about their business.

IÂ walked to the corner store the other day to buy a bottle of wine. There was a car pulled over with a cop car behind it. I walked into the store, which was across the street from this scene. There was a group of kids (late teens or early twenties) whispering not-quietly-enough about whether or not they had run into the store too fast when the cops pulled that guy over outside. They were also blaming one another for potentially calling attention to themselves.

Also in the last few days I heard a gunshot outside, though I couldn’t see from where. Two kids scurried off quickly into the night in front of the house. Other times there are cars parked outside with tinted windows. People come and go from these cars, and I can see lighters being sparked inside of them. I suppose it’s theoretically possible they’re just smoking cigarettes. Anyway: crackheads. Always something new.

I Haz Been Spammed 2 Death!

So I am getting so much spam (presumably as a result of my posting my weirdest spam comments) that I literally can’t moderate my comments right now. Sorry for those of you who have been effected by this but: I probably have to wipe my comments out entirely (those awaiting moderation). My bad folks! Anywho, should be back in order shortly.

Last Ten Digg Front Page Stories

So some of you might have noticed I’ve been fairly involved with Digg.com recently, and a surprising number of my recent submissions have hit the front page. Here is a run-down of these recent top hits that span a big spectrum in terms of topics. Each has had between 35K and 70K visitors. Enjoy!

The first of these was fairly contentious (and perhaps poorly phrased), and was buried right upon hitting the front page. It concerned a Digg feature that would help both Diggers and site owners, but the headline was phrased in such a way that Diggers thought it was an attack on Digg. Oh well!

The next post did extremely well, and concerned unusually legal street art – something entertaining and rather broadly interesting and appealing. An apparently misleading article (which I didn’t know at the time) about iPhones wearing out in a few months made number three. A nice post on website design simplicity unfortunatly crashed the target site. People did, in fact, rally behind my call-to-action to save a cool website from a negative change.

Surpringly (to me at least) a fairly entertaining picture collection of tree porn was buried shortly after becoming popular. A nice abandonment photo set on a newer blog did quite well – probably in part because the pictures were original and the story personal. Some Diggers didn’t read the headline on this article, and were disappointed – but it delivered exactly what the headline said: a brilliantly simple and cheap guerilla marketing strategy.

Who could disagree with an article on subversive and illegal guerilla gardening? Apparently other people agree with me that ads on YouTube videos are going too far. If you want to see my most recent top story check this page and vote it up if you like it!

Top 10 Links to the Best Links Online

Consider this the link list to end all linklists – a meta-list of the best link lists I’ve found on the web! Bookmark this page for future reference, or simply click through to the next big thing. The web is endless! Enjoy!

(10) A classic favorite, Fark is undoubtedly the best source on the web for strange, weird and funny news. This is a site full of sarcasm and stupid puns, be warned!

 (9) At SeeHere expect to see something like what you’re seeing, well, here! In short: the links are short but sweet, and there are nicely categorized/grouped sites.

 (8) Want a broader variety of web-buzz? Stumbleupon always provides interesting and offbeat sites voted by users in all kinds of categories.

(7) Ebaumsworld has always been a scandalous site, surrounded by controversy over stolen content, but at the end of the day they still show users wacky videos and fascinating links.

(6) Everyone knows Digg.com, right? Well, if you don’t, it’s probably the biggest social news site on the web – but it varies from offbeat news to too much tech. Just so you know what you’re getting into!

(5) OK, so, I don’t even know what language this site is in (.hr? anyone?), but they keep linking to me, so I figure they get an honorable foriegn language site mention.

(4) Even though the content is a bit immature and/or scandalous, I suppose it wouldn’t be fair to compile a list of popular linkdumps without mentioning LinkDump.com

(3) WebUrbanist has a great category for cool images of all kinds which is worth checking back in on every few days – not updated constantly, but quality is better than quality, right?

(2) Never forget the good old WallStreetFighter, who posts top 10 lists all the time – and old ones can always be found in his archives at any time!

(1) You guessed it – All Sux dot Com is the best site on the web for awesome link lists. This was in NO way biased by the fact that you are currently on All Sux dot Com …

What to Know if You Are Being Stalked

Having been stalked and read up on it a bit, I thought I might as well share with some readers what the basics are in terms of a stalking. Two things I learned that surprised me: (1) I actually thought I was being stalked before I was (legally speaking) and (2) stalking comes with much heavier penalties than I would have guessed.

(1) “Most stalking laws require that the perpetrator make a credible threat of violence against the victim; others include threats against the victim’s immediate family; and still others require only that the alleged stalker’s course of conduct constitute an implied threat. While some conduct involving annoying or menacing behavior might fall short of illegal stalking, such behavior may be a prelude to stalking and violence and should be treated seriously.” Wikipedia

I had thought that stalking just referred to general harassment, etc… never realized a threat of violence was needed. Only recently (the last week or so) did my stalker actually start implying violence (threatening “real world consequence” and indefinite outcomes like “or else”)

(2) “Federal law provides a number of important tools that are available to combat cyberstalking. Under 18 U.S.C. 875(c), it is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000, to transmit any communication in interstate or foreign commerce containing a threat to injure the person of another.USDOJ.gov

Now I have to say that really got my attention. Five years in jail and up to a quarter-million dollars in fines? That’s a pretty harsh penalty, but then again, stalking can be harsh too. So, if you’re being stalked: know your rights and know what the legal boundaries are (look them up yourself, I’m not a lawyer!). Anyway, I would think that sane stalker (is there such a thing?) would see information like this and back off, but I suppose you never know!

Being Cyberstalked Just Gets Weirder

OK, so having a digital stalker is getting really really strange. I was confused at first, but then I read that this is a fairly common stalker trick: he has tried to turn the tables and accuse me of stalking him. I’m a little perplexed about how responding to someone’s harassing emails and writing posts without naming them could be construed as stalking, particularly given his own far more intrusive activities.

He has continued to post about me – naming me by (fortunately my fake) name and naming my website – while the few times I have posted about him I did so anonymously. He has contacted people I know, have worked for, am acquainted with, and so on – while I have only contacted him and one other blogger (who was repeating his misinformation). I have asked him to stop writing about me, to me and to people I know repeatedly – but he persists. Perhaps most revealing: this all started because he was violating the law and I notified him about it.

So, OK, maybe I’m nuts but, it seems pretty clear who is stalking who here.

Anywho, this will be the last post abot the stalker directly anyway. So glad Allsux.com is bizarre enough to pick up a creepy fan following. To all you stalkers, though, don’t forget: I am both related to and friends with lawyers … get extra-creepy on me at your own risk ;)

Sorry I’ve Been Lazy

I’ve been a little lazy about updating, so instead of quickly trying to compile some great links or random images I let YouTube do the work for me. Enjoy!

Some Blogs to Watch Out For

It’s been too long since I gave out some link love, and sorry long-time blogger buds but I’m going to stick to new blood on this one! Here are some newer bloggers (or at least newer to me!) who I think you should take some time and check out:

You absolutely must see this blog with ghostly images of abandoned places and narrative subtitles – it is a bit like watching a movie the way the images tell the story. The site is brand new but sure to gain some momentum fast.

This cool blogger is looking for some folks for a digital artistic collaboration – strictly non-profit good-for-the-soul stuff, and make no mistake: she has creativity to burn (maybe I can get her to redesign this craptastic blog for me someday).

Joe over at Arsenal Marketing is working hard at things, and I expect that (with some link-love from yours truly!) he’ll be in good shape for his first PR update. I’m not a big fan of blogs-about-blogging-and-money in general but he seems like a standup guy- and nice blog redesign Joe!

Spintega is an old pal o mine, well, online anyway, and he just got a website sort of up and running. He’s a real whiz at design and whipped up that page design in a few short minutes.

Romlet isn’t a blog or blogger or anything like that, but a brand new blog widget for boasting and boosting popularity. It’s kind of like the MyBlogLog widgets, a FeedBurner stats counter, and other stuff all rolled into one. If you have a blog – you need a Romlet (mine’s right over there! ->)

There’s someone else I’m supposed to give some link love too but I can’t find his URL for the life of me – I swear he has a disallow->Google in his index.php because I can’t find him anywhere on the interwebs. So if you’re out there, and mad because I’m not giving you link love, lemme know!

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