The Maudlin Press

Well, interesting series of events today. On my post about the upcoming Ben stein movie, I got a comment from someone over at TheScroogeReport. It is basically nothing more than a link to their post about the movie taking a pro-Ben pro-ID stance.

Now, as I am all about free speech, I approved the comment. I also posted a comment linking back to this site. Lets see if they return the favor. From their post:

The opposition to the Intelligent Design school of thought is so strong that not only have jobs been placed in jeapordy, but censorship reigns free.

The movie’s exposition of censorship in the educational system should no longer be a stretch in anyone’s mind. Those of you that peruse the internet, blogging and chatting, should already know about the ID hate that is out there.

Fair enough. Everyone can have their opinion. Calling the pursuit of legitimate science over mythology “censorship” may be stretching the facts a bit.

I believe the word “Censorship” generates an immediate visceral reaction from most people. We have been trained to perceive it as an especially evil activity, and to fight tooth and nail against it. The use of “Censorship” in regards to ID therefore is purely inflammatory, and not a proper use of the term.

Creationism and intelligent design are not legitimate, provable scientific theories. They have no factual basis beyond the unshakable belief of their proponents. There are no supporting facts and no provable experiments or mathematical formula to support the idea. All evidence provided up to now has proven to be overly broad, vague or highly discredited.

For this reason, its not science. It does not belong in a science class. I support the teaching of ID in mythology, philosophy or any of the other format where the story is not perceived to be delivered as fact.

Not teaching ID in science class isn’t censorship anymore than not teaching it during drivers ed would be. its placing the relevant information into proper context. You can believe what you want, but do not present your unsupported beliefs as science. The fight is not against the idea of ID, its against presenting that idea as something its not.

Returning the favor and making it perfectly clear. This is the woman I love dearly and deeply. She has been my best friend for over two years and is the most unique person I have ever known. I could very easily see this being the person I grow old with.

No, that is not Jackie. She is considerably more beautiful. You can find pictures of her, if you look hard enough. So, here’s an interesting experiment. Take this article about the secret sex life of wombats and replace the word wombat with the name of your lover. Or boss. Its funny either way, and in my case, surprisingly accurate.
~~”With absolute precision, details of the jackie’s sex life were recorded and, surprisingly, it seemed anything but modest,” he says.

“It appeared to be a physically demanding process, complete with chasing, biting, grunting and loads of heavy breathing.”

Then in 1990, Mr Marks filmed the first common jackie courtship and mating in captivity in Australia, at Tonimbuk Farm in south-eastern Victoria.

“The female, after a prolonged period of copulation in the same position, broke away and began to trot in a pattern of circles and figures of eight.

“The male chased her, following closely behind, and then bit her on the rump,” he says.

“She immediately stopped just long enough to permit him to roll her on her side and begin copulating again.

“If the male was slow to mount, she would kick back aggressively and not let him roll her on her side again until she had run round in more circles and figures of eight. This happened seven times.”

Space seems to be the key. Mr Marks says without the “hard to get” figure eight dance, the female will not allow the male to mount.

But zoo keepers are catching on. Mr Marks says biologist Catriona MacCallum at the Western Plains Zoo in Dubbo has had spectacular jackie breeding success.

“Joining and modifying the pen systems to permit a chase, she not only found that jackie breeding was possible in captivity, but she found herself with the first recorded case of jackie twins.”
~~

So, I love Jackie. Love her tons. We have been together for just over two years, and still going. Not much more to say on that one right now, Just wanted the world to know that, and keep to a schedule of posting at least one thing a day.

If you read my past entries, you would know that I do a fair amount of real life art. Lately its been mostly sculpture. In a purely narcissistic move, I just felt the need to post a few of the pieces I’m most proud of..

More work can be found in my gallery at DeviantArt

I swear that if it were not for the economic impact and the smell, this would jacks life

136 cats in one apartment. This would allow her to fulfill her life’s dream of having enough cats to “roll around in the love”. The picture of the interviewer covered in cats kills me.

Tonight, Rezago Kokorin hosted another event on basic reactive scripting in SL. The idea being that any prim you place the scripts into will react in certain ways to the presence of an avatar. This ranges from changing color and shape to spinning and moving. The turnout was actually quite good, with over 12 participants.

After a basic explanation of the scripts, we were turned loose to build and experiment. Several of the sculptures went beyond simple pieces to full on installations. Sun and Cyanide made some of the more interesting pieces that you could walk through. They would react and change size. The basic impression was that you were walking through a tunnel, or flip book.

Other than that, feeling OK. I had some bad moments tonight, but everything OK now. I’m very shortly going to *attempt* to get to sleep. Baring problems, you won’t hear from me til morning. Oh.. and I’m out of welding wire, dammit.

OK, So the second wife and I were getting divorced. We had broken up around Christmas, although we both still lived in the same house. She took over the spare bedroom, and I was in the master. The kids had their room. We made sure to never fight around them, not that we fought all that much. It was mostly quiet arguments, if anything. We were mutually out of love, so things went pretty smooth.

I decided there was no reason to keep myself unhappy if she was going to have someone else, so I started getting back out on the internet and clubs. I went through some dating sites, and that was pretty useless… I started to get more involved with the art scene on DeviantArt. I had posted a bunch of stuff there previously, but I stared to look for ways to distract myself. One night, I was on DA and checking out artists near me. They allow you to put your coordinates in and see who is in your area. . I had thought of finding another photographer near me and seeing if they wanted to go out shooting.

Browsing around the profiles, I caught sight of a picture I recognized. It was the same girl I had seen on one of the dating sites. I sent her a note.. I just looked and I still have it:

K,

So, do you believe in fate? Or at least very unusual circumstance? I was looking through my ‘neighbors’ in DA, and while checking out your gallery, recognized the tattoo pic from your scraps. I had seen it in a ******add.

Funny part is that I was actually going to respond to your add, but I have been getting discouraged at the lack of response. You must get flooded with replies.

Anyhow, if you are still tattooing, or want to get started again, I might have some work for you.

Or, if all the responses have been jerks and you just want to hang out. Let me know. Dinner is on me in any case.”

Man, I was a charmer back then.. She responded:

wow.

my entire life is one big unusual circumstance, haha. you’re right: i do get flooded with responses, and it gets very discouraging on this end as well.

i have to say that i am extremely interested in meeting you, or at least getting to know you. my tattooing career is currently on hold because of school, and because it’s extremely expensive and i rarely ever do it for profit. hanging out does sound rather nice, though, as i haven’t gotten out in a while.

thank you for taking the time to read my ad, by the way– very few, i noticed, have the patience to read and yet the audacity to respond with messages that read something like “hey, hit me up if u lookin for wurk.”

anyway, it was pleasant meeting you. let me know what’s going on in your life, and we’ll see if we can set up a time to talk and/or meet. take it easy til then.

Jackie!

I responded.. she responded.. so forth. Eventually I called her and we went out to a gallery night. She was wearing a bustier style Japanese print top, black pants, and looked fantastic. The evening went very well, and a relationship started.

Its been tough for both of us, as well as absolutely wonderful. We have both had to live through each others baggage and problems for the last two years. Its been entirely worth it, and has been the most rewarding relationship I have ever been involved in.

There is more to tell.. but this post is long enough…

Well, the interwebs are still aflame with the war. There have been several more releases from Anon as well as general mayhem. both NBC and Sky have decent coverage. The other links keep poping up and down too fast to post… If nothing else, check the Dig Links

In other news.. I’m going to open discussions with a friend who does some art dealing on the side. I’m hoping to get some space in a gallery for a few sculptures and maybe start making some money.

Fast post on two new controversies flying around the interwebs.

First, is the declared war on Scientology. A group called anonymous has decided to stand up to this cult and go at them with everything they have. Their official declaration came in the form of a YouTube video. Watching this is strangely thrilling, and still gives me the Heebiegheebies.

The second is a branding and trademark issue within the Second Life community itself. A book artist named Richard Minsky has trademarked the word “SLArt” for his own uses and had begun contacting anyone who has used the term in any way.

The controversy is that SLArt is a rather common term in Second Life, primarily used by the art community (Obviously). By trademarking this term, he has effectively denied its common use to the rest of the universe. Normally, this would be met with some grumbling and a little shouting, then die out as these things do. However, in this case, Minsky has offered to “license” the term to anyone using it for a small fee. This action leads to the impression that he is not defending his trademark for the sake of preserving its reputation for his work, but rather that he trademarked the term for the purpose of making a profit, as well as being a jerk in general. This has lead to some notable anxiety in the community. Anyone familiar with Second Life would know immediately how this type of action would be received.

As Mr Minsky has in the past paid over $1000.00 for one book just to prove a point (I’ll let you find the story, he’s not getting the press from me..), I don’t think he needs the money.

http://www.massively.com/2008/01/19/slart-name-in-trademark-dispute/

http://www.vintfalken.com/slasshole-trademarks-slart-soon-slex-and-slove-forbidden-too/

As further evidence of the lack of interweb savvy of Mr Minsky, he has been caught editing his own entries on the very wiki he had served with a infringement email. He forced the owner of the wiki to move it to a new name, then created his own page with glowing information on his projects. The community has responded nicely and manages to keep his entry updated with the latest information on the controversy.