Lexidiem: Word of the Day

Sometimes you come across a journal that just knocks your socks off. 

What I'm referring to was called Heroes, and was posted by IkkyG on February 22nd, yesterday evening. Please, before you go any further, click on the link above to read what she wrote. It will open in a separate window.

First read her words while very bleary-eyed late last night, wanted to comment then, but as I thought about what she had written, the more profound the thoughts she had expressed seemed to become. And the laudatory comment that I was going to leave became too long.

So I'm posting this as a direct and personal response...

Kristyn, you've put into words here what so many have thought, and considered expressing themselves, but for one reason or another have failed to do so. And you did it so beautifully, so eloquently, that it made this reader go back, at least half a dozen times, as if to distill your words.

Have to agree with you that the vapid illusion of becoming e-famous has replaced the concept of striving to emulate meaningful role models for so many. The people that you mentioned: the paper figures created from television and movie roles; the arrogant and self-centered sports personalities; the idolized and offensive people who pass as musicians; the putrid and disgusting so-called scene queens, who delight in offending others with their empty and usually profane vocabulary... each of these and all of them collectively contribute to a social malaise that seems to spread like a cancer throughout our society. 

I wish that I could have disagreed with you on some of them, that I could have found some shred of good to point out, but I couldn't. And I have to agree with you on all counts, and especially so regarding that self-proclaimed Queen of Buzznet and Queen of MySpace, wallowing in his own disgusting rhetoric and dragging so many down to his putrid level with him.

Jeffree Star videos on Buzznet

One of the sites that promotes his tours, music and media says this: 

"What can you say about Jeffree Star that hasn't been scrawled in blood and other assorted bodily fluids in dirty bathrooms all over the southern United States, or said by the whorish super promoter himself, or written in countless internet paparazzi blogs, or dreamt about by millions of teenagers and just as many adult closet mannequins?" 

One can read it in its entirety here, if they like, but it's pretty much as you see above.

Kristyn, you asked: "So what then makes a good human being?", then suggested these splendid attributes:

• Being gracious. 
• Accepting advice and criticism. 
• Supporting friends, family, complete strangers. 
• Doing the right thing by others, not just yourself. 
• Making Sacrifices. 

Read each of them, thinking how magnificent your list was, yet something so simple that each one of us could easily follow, if we each paused for a moment and thought about those words.

You mentioned Australia's High Court Justice Michael Donald Kirby, not as your so-called hero, but as someone whom you admire. Hadn't heard of him of him, admittedly, so I followed your link, and then discovered why you held him in high esteem. But you planted a seed of curiosity within me about this interesting man who is still going quite strong, championing all that you wrote about.

It didn't take long to find out that he had appeared alongside hip-hop impresario Elf Tranzporter at the launch of Melbourne's Victorian Arts Law Week in 2007. And there, wearing not his normally conservative dark suit, he performed a rap of William Butler Yeats' poem He Wishes for the Cloths of Heavens, with Elf Tranzporter providing a "beatboxing" background.

Anyone who can pull this off in his late 60s is indeed a man to admire.

I smiled quite broadly when you wrote that you admire Oscar Wilde's writing skills and Billy Corgan's musical skills, but that you don't want to be like them or idolize them. Yes, they were/are hugely flawed people, as are we all.

Some of your closing remarks hit home so well, especially where you suggested:

• You don't need a hero or an idol to give your life direction or meaning. 
• Be master of your own destiny. 
• Set your own goals and aspirations.
• Aim to be better.

But Kristyn, it was that final one, suggesting that people aim to be better, that made me realize something. For all of the bashing that your generation takes for not having values, for being morally bankrupt, for being clueless as to the world around you, there are some of you willing to step forward and take the reins of leadership into your own hands, and to try and make this world a better place.

And in some ways, it's people like you who may just do a far better job than other generations before yours have done.

Well, will you look here now... 

This is Fredo, and he has a face you might want to remember.
 


He calls himself infamousfredo! He's only been on Buzznet a very short time, yet he's already making a name for himself here. 
 
Actually, is seems to be no surprise that he came to us by way of Tila's Hot Spot, so maybe we should call him THE Infamous Fredo. 

According to Fredo's profile, his credentials say that he's a TilasHotSpot.com Member from The Bronx, NY, and has been a member since 02/18/2008. And he sports one of those fancy new badges. You can see him over here on Tila's Hot Spot, if you like. 

Fredo is trying to impress us, so he's posted a few photos that he want to share with us...


when i used 2 live wit my brother 


used to b a skater lol 

And a few additional one's to show us that he's a pretty normal 17-year-old.

  

Looks like any normal aspiring young man trying to make his mark on Tila's Hot Spot, right? 

But maybe Fredo wants to really impress us... 


Here is one of his profile photos... 

But there is more... lots more. 

Maybe he can't be Big on Buzznet, but it looks like he's trying to be Big on Tila's Hot Spot, as you can see here:

Fredo is a Weenie-Wagger!


WARNING: the unaltered photo may still be online here.


WARNING: the unaltered photo may still be online here.

His caption on the original was: Wow imma big boii =] 

Couldn't resist commenting, and my response was: 
 
Don't you mean, "Wow, I gotta a big boil on this nasty, diseased thing!"

Didn't your momma ever teach you to wash?


By the way, thanks and kudos to John (ounceofwentz) for having the guts to notify me on this one.  

OK, my problem with crap like this here on Buzznet is that we are a community that is made up of wuite a number of members who are under 18 years of age, and it seem that since the Tila's Hot Spot site went online, we've begin to see not only an increase in spam, including messages and links to porn sites, but more and more inappropriate material, such as this displayed by this immature weenie-wagger that you see above.

Ever since the infamous incidents regarding photos of P33T's Peen hit here and the rest of the 'Net in 2006, it seems that many have used this as an excuse to display their nether regions in public with the excuse, "Well he can do it, so why can't I!"

And for those who don't know, weenie-wagger is American slang for (1) a male masturbator and/or (2) a male sexual exhibitionist.

'Nuff said!
 

What has happened to our sense of values? 
 
Was watching the news today and this evening, appalled by what I was seeing again, by history repeating itself.
 
On Thursday, Valentine's Day, Steven Kazmierczak, armed with three handguns and a brand-new pump-action Remington shotgun he had carried onto the Northern Illinois University campus in a guitar case, stepped from behind a screen on the stage of a lecture hall, and opened fire on a geology class. 
 
Kazmierczak killed five students and then himself. 
 
University Police Chief Donald Grady said that the 27-year-old had become erratic in the past two weeks after he had stopped taking his medication. But that seemed to come as news to many of those who knew him, and the attack itself was positively baffling. 
 
Investigators learned that a week ago, on February 9th, Kazmierczak walked into a gun store in Champaign and picked up two guns, the Remington shotgun and a Glock 9mm handgun. He bought the two other handguns at the same shop, a Hi-Point .380 on December 30th and a Sig Sauer on August 6th. 
 
All four guns had been bought legally from a federally licensed firearms dealer. At least one criminal background check had been performed... Kazmierczak had no criminal record. 
 
Most of us have seen this story plastered all over the media, so I'll go no further about it, but it did get me to thinking on multiple tracks; about history repeating itself, about media coverage, about my own beliefs in the Second Amendment (the right to bear arms), and thought about why such things happen. 
 
Had been writing an angry reaction to this entire story when I happened upon LeeV's journal on this topic... and it stimulated another thought, and that had to do with values. This is the reaction as I posted as a comment, with a few additions:

Maybe if we who are parents would put down the remote controls to our television sets for an extra ten minutes a day and discuss values. with our children, it might make a difference.
 
It really wouldn't be that hard to do. Values could come from many different sources... things that shaped our own lives when we were young; spiritual things if a religious family; our success (and failures, being honest); even silly pranks that we may have pulled at a young age (this from J.R., who's reading this with me)... it's your own choice here.
 
Values are not chuckling over the latest episode of Family Guy or The Simpsons, or who was the best talent on American Idol. If one wants to find values to discuss from television, there's always the Discovery Channel, A&E, the History Channel and such.
 
Right now one of our local channels is running the film Hotel Rwanda, the true-life story of Paul Rusesabagina, a hotel manager who housed over a thousand Tutsi refugees during their struggle against the Hutu militia in Rwanda, when almost 1,000,000 Rwandans where massacred in a 100 day period. You can see the trailer here, but it's a pretty brutal subject.


 
My son had seen the previews for this film, we talked about it (I've seen it before), and it was his choice to watch... and yes, we will discuss it later. It's been called an African Schindler's List, another film that he's already seen. And yes, this one will help shape his own values.
 
We agree on many things and differ on others, for he's always been encouraged from a very young age to not follow the crowd, but to shape his own opinions, his own sense of values.
 
Without values, we end up with situations like the tragedy we saw at Virginia Tech and the others that we've been seeing in the news. And values like this have to be taught from home, and not from our school systems.
 
It takes just a few extra minutes each day to do this, that's all.

The news today reported that Steven Kazmierczak's father, Robert Kazmierczak, appeared on the porch of his Lakeland, Florida home and pled for privacy, telling a reporter “Please leave me alone. I have no statement to make.” Reporters had been trying to contact Robert Kazmierczak after it was discovered his son was responsible for the killing of the five students before taking his own life. 
 
The Polk County (Florida) Sheriff’s Department had been requested to notify Robert Kazmierczak that his son had died, and shortly after being notified Kazmierczak found several reporters in his yard. 
 
He made a brief appearance, saying “It's a very hard time. I'm a diabetic.” Kazmierczak requested that the reporters leave, then broke down in tears and went back inside the house. It has been reported that he recently lost his wife as well. It's very hard imagine putting one's self in this grieving father's shoes.
 
From all that we know, all that has been reported, Robert Kazmierczak had instilled a sense of values within his son, so maybe my thoughts above are only a partial solution to this ongoing problem. 
 
Many years ago, as young Marine, I took an oath that I would l support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and have lived by that oath... once a Marine, always a Marine. I was raised with firearms, and learned to shoot at an early age, skills that I proudly carried into my adult life. Was at a certain point fulfilled by my shooting skills as a expert and sharpshooter, both with pistols and rifles. Times change, though, and I gave away my last personal firearm, a 9mm Beretta automatic pistol in the early 1980s as I just hadn't fired it in a number of years, even on a range.
 
But now my own beliefs in our right to bear arms as outlined in the Second Amendment to the Constitution are in grave doubt, and as a result of all of these wanton acts of firearm violence, am now looking more closely at the Brady Campaign to prevent Gun Violence.
 
Sometimes we all have to take stock and re-examine our own values.
 
And now I have a film and its values to discuss with my son...
 
 
Posted earlier on JargonTalk (Beta 2.0) - Values

Happiness
 
We convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, then another. Then we are frustrated that the kids aren’t old enough and we’ll be more content when they are. After that, we’re frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage. We tell ourselves that our life will be complete when our spouse gets his or her act together, when we get a nicer car, when we are able to go on a nice vacation or when we retire.
 
The truth is there’s no better time to be happy than right now. If not now, when? Your life will always be filled with challenges.
 
It’s best to admit this to yourself and decide to be happy anyway. Happiness is the way. So, treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special, special enough to spend your time with… and remember that time waits for no one.
 
So, stop waiting…

... until your car or home is paid off,
... until you get a new car or home,
... until your kids leave the house,
... until you go back to school,
... until you finish school,
... until you lose ten pounds,
... until you gain ten pounds,
... until you get married,
... until you get a divorce,
... until you have kids,
... until you retire,
... until summer,
... until spring,
... until winter,
... until fall,
... until you die.
 
There is no better time than right now to be happy.
 
Happiness is a journey, not a destination.

By Crystal Boyd, from Midnight Muse, 2000

Thought for today:

Work like you don't need money.
Love like you've never been hurt.
Dance like no one's watching.

Technorati tags: Funksteena, Crystal Boyd, dance, Lexidlem, Jargontalk, happiness, Midnight Muse

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America's most famous groundhog emerged from his burrow his shadow shortly before 7:30 AM, saw his shadow, and that means that winter will last another six weeks. This occurred before a crowd of more than 30,000 people from as far away as Alaska and Texas, one of the largest crowds in the 122-year history of the event in the central Pennsylvania town of Punxsutawney. 


 
According to lore, if the groundhog emerges from his burrow on February 2nd and sees his shadow, he will be frightened back into his hole, signifying another six weeks of winter. If it's a cloudy day, and no shadow, that means that means winter will end early. As luck would have it, the crappy weather of the preceding few days gave way to glorious sunshine.
 
Phil was taken out of a tree stump on a hill called Gobbler's Knob, and delivered his profound thought to William Cooper, President of Punxsutawney's Inner Circle, who organizers say is the only person in the world who can speak Groundhogese (the officiallanguage of the groundhogs). 
 
Cooper read a scroll containing the groundhog's prediction. It said: "As I look around me, a bright sky I see, and a shadow beside me. Six more weeks of winter it will be."
 
According to the tradition that may have links with the European festival of Candlemas, if the groundhog sees his shadow, it will mean six more weeks of winter. If not, there will be an early spring. This tradition may have been brought to the United States by German immigrants

Here are the facts (with maybe a little fiction) regarding Groundhog Day:

• Punxsutawney Phil weighs 20 pounds (9 kg) and is 22 inches long. Although groundhogs live for six to eight years, legend has it that Phil, who is named after King Philip, has been making predictions for over 120 years now, thanks to a magic elixir that he drinks every summer to get seven more years of life.
    
• Groundhog, woodchuck, land beaver, and whistlepig are all names for the same rodent, the Marmota monax. Related to the squirrel, for the most part they eat green plants like dandelion, clover and grasses. They grow to weigh roughly five to nine pounds (2 to 4 kg) in the wild, but can grow much bigger in areas with fewer natural predators. 
    
• Like many similar animals, groundhogs hibernate during the winter. They often emerge from their underground burrows in early February, when Groundhog Day is marked.
    
• The groundhog has not seen his shadow only 14 times since 1887, compared to 96 times when he saw his shadow. There were no records in nine of the early years. 
    
• The buildup of marking this special day formed the basis of the 1993 film Groundhog Day, starring Bill Murray, Andie MacDowell, Chris Elliott.

And don't blame me about the prediction for six more weeks of winter... I'm only the messenger.

More info and photos at the official Punxsutawney Groundhog Club, and don't miss the FAQ about this internationally famous celebration.
 
From a prior posting on the JargonTalk (Beta 2.0) blog.

They've been out there in force this weekend... 
 

 
Took a couple of days off and came back to find that the porn spammers have been on the attack here again... and I'm using the term attack lightly, that's for sure. 
 
First off, checking my messages, found one from my friend Christine at swanktrendzvanc, who commented that she had become incensed with the daily assault of SPAM (as well as with the general havoc hackers create) that she becomes overwhelmed and then feels powerless. She also expressed that she was wondering if anyone is actually buying what they're selling. 
 
She also took the time to pass on a some spam that appeared in the comments of this Buzznet page: 
 
Brandon Phillips from The Architects' plans for Valentines Day 

There in the comments I found this gem, which was totally unrelated to the posting there:

banban694: 02/02/2008 4:22 AM
WATCH ME NAKED IN MY ROOM,PLAYING SEX
WITH MY BOYFRIEND,I AM WEETTYY AND HOT,
PLZZ MEET MY HOOTTEESSTT DESIRE ...
just click my link
just click my link

While there, I found this one as well:

bamba69 said
click and watch me naked==want to watch my naked 
video!? plus my collection of sex scandals from the 
young celebrity of asia.. plus an album of porno 
pictures of FHM models FREE!!!!==

click and watch me naked
click and watch me naked 

Class act, isn't it?
 
Then I received a number of notes and/or messages from ikkyg, miseryslifeofdoom, anapinkf, crash13, kassady and jillypeppa regarding these attacks, to name a few. It is now clear that Buzznet is receiving the full effects of a porn spam attack. 

Most of these spammers are people who are doing this for pure personal profit, and nothing more. They change their names and add new profiles here as fast as their old one is taken down, and in many cases are running multiple profiles here. 
 
But doing a bit of quick tracking on the 'Net, we aren't the only site getting his hard by them. Spent a few hours researching this, and found that along with the Movies journals here on Buzznet, users on Stage6, Bebo, Hi5, GoFish, Dailymotion, VideoJug, Xanga, Fotolog, Metacafe, some adult sites and other places on the 'Net are getting hit with the exact same or very similar messages that we're seeing all over the place here. 
 
Now there are some interesting things that I found during my digging. It seems that most of these point to a particular site known as ajboy.com. It seems that the Domain name ajboy.com shows a Registrant, Administrative and Technical Contact as follows:

Ajalon Membrere (ajmemebrere@yahoo.com)
0063 75 576 02 93
Fax: 
Brgy. Road Bantug
Umingan, Pangasinan 2443
Philippines 

But since these are often fronts, or referring sites for others, I decided to do a little more digging, and found that most of their links on ajboy.com were going directly to another site, glozy.com. Checking that site turned up info that the Registrant, Administrative and Technical Contact was this individual:

Gloman M. Merritt (glomanm@yahoo.co.uk)
+31.641800284
Fax: 
Jan van Riebeekstraat 240
The Hague, ZH 2595 WZ
Netherlands

Obviously this was getting to be very interesting, as it seemed to have developed global perspective at this point, but it was still worth digging a bit further. That's when I found that they were just one of a number going by the domain name of palzz.com. Checking further into palzz.com that showed that the Registrant, Administrative and Technical Contact was none other than:

Gloman M. Merritt (glomanm@yahoo.co.uk)
+31.641800284
Fax: 
Jan van Riebeekstraat 240
The Hague, ZH 2595 WZ
Netherlands

As you can see, the Registrant, Administrative and Technical Contacts for both glozy.com and palzz.com, are listed as the same individual.
 
So for what it's worth to Buzznet, there are now a number of referring sites that can be blocked as needed... at least for a start. And again, for what it's worth, the Registrar of the three above sites is an outfit known as eNom, Inc., which is a very large outfit with headquarters in Bellevue, Washington, and was acquired by Demand Media, Inc., a company headed by none other than former MySpace.com chairman Richard Rosenblatt. It might also be interesting to see the mix of adult Web hosting sites that are tied in to this outfit, but I'll leave that to others at this point.

Please note that some of the links in this journal have been intentionally disabled.