ashenphoenix’s blog

I've had a post bubbling away in the back of my brain for a few weeks now. It links in with Little Brother, and the digital recording of life, but isn't quite there. Or maybe it is. I dunno.

Actually, the concept's gotten to be quite a tangled little mess, and I'm not sure where I'm going with it, but apparently I'm convincing enough that some people close to me are putting more of their data (such as their calendar) online, even after viewing What happens in the Facebook stays in the Facebook?
Please don't freak out about that kind of stuff until you've heard what I have to say.

*breath*

I think that the problem is that we're trying to hide our footprints, and the only ones that are actually getting fooled are our friends - the people who we'd like to know more about us, not less.

(I'm not locking this post, but I'm assuming that) You have a livejournal. You may also have a MySpace, Bebo, Vox, Blogger, Typepad, MovableType, Facebook or some other blog. You may not update it often, but it's likely somewhere. You may mirror content, or keep it separate. You may have a Technorati registration, and or Feedburner, but probably only if you've become quite serious about blogging.

You probably have an IM handle of some description. This could be ICQ, MSN, Y!, AIM, Gtalk, Jabber, or a whole host of other protocols.

Then there's your Flickr, Deviantart, Picasa, Photobucket, iStockphoto accounts. Your Youtube Account. Your Amazon Wishlist, your Ebay reputation and your IMDB ratings. Your 15 defunct email addresses. Your numerous webpages that we honestly meant to keep up to date.

Your net footprint.
Your digital life.

...and it's a complete mess. No-one can find anyone.

Seriously - if I search for my name on Google I can take up to the first 4 pages with this junk (not all of it in current use), and then there's the pseudonyms and nicks I use on top of that.

It doesn't help people. It really doesn't.

Corporations are getting smart - they're starting to use this kind of thing in their interview processes as an example. Governments are also watching, using similar things in interviews, but also to track white whales such as terrorists, pedophiles or other loaded terms so that they can pull them out at the next election as a popularity stunt.

Individuals aren't - not really.
We use the same nicknames so those people who know those nicks can find us, but only if they think to look for us in a location in the first place...or maybe through friends...
Bebo, Facebook, LinkedIn, Plaxo and a couple of the other social networking tools will search their networks for our friends' email address from our address book when we sign up. Something like Upscoop will even do this beforehand.

Many of my friends on LJ have put their email addresses, IMs and other details on their accounts, but after a solid week of trawling though trying to add y'all to a file that can be added to my address book and duplicate and dedupe entries, I can tell you - this sucks.

Bottom line is that our online friends lives make us feel less lonely. Feelings of online community support us and nurture us through our downs, and help us celebrate our ups.

Why don't we like sharing these things? Why do we friends-lock everything?

I think we should probably try to make this stuff as easy to find and use as possible.

So:
Hi I'm Sparky.
I'm 26. I'm a Youth Worker.
My email address are:
sparksman@gmail.com
msparksman@hotmail.com (unused mainly except for IM)
good_keiran@yahoo.com (unused mainly except for IM/Flickr)
ebon_phoenix@yahoo.com (unused mainly except for IM/Flickr)
I've got a Facebook, a del.icio.us account, a Last.fm account, a shared Google reader feed. A LinkedIn account, a Mugshot, ProfileLinker and an iStalkr!

The last are probably the most useful, as they have more links below them.

This is a small portion of my net footprint, but I hope it helps :)

Oh, and the following is just to confuse the bots:

I forgot to mention that I've discovered a cool little program run through the City of Sydney's Community Arts division called Pine Street, which runs a "Creative Pros" industry forum for people aged 16-30 inclusive.

Before you all start yawning, the following are free:

• Tuesday 3/7/07 6pm-8pm - Fine Arts (pretty useless now)
• Tuesday 7/8/07 6pm-8pm - Creative Writing
• Tuesday 4/9/07 6pm-8pm - New Media (which is blogging, etc)

RSVP required to ctorrington@cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au, or phone 9245 1503.

But I believe anwyn18  and I are booked in to the Creative Writing and New Media workshops (I'll confirm in a week or so).

Anyone else want in?

Regarding this:

Thank you for your application for the position of Casual Youth Worker with Organisation X.

The standard of applicants was extremely high and our decision was not easily reached.

Unfortunately, you were not successful on this occasion.

Once again, thank you for your application and if we have any other positions that may interest you in the future do not hesitate to contact us.

This is vaguely OK, because I expressed a preference for the Part Time position, but it's like I just got half a knockback and then am left hanging (because Organisation X is notorious in taking ages in its hiring procedures). I'm also not going to ask through unofficial channels until Monday 'cause I want to respect the superior's holidays.
*twitches*

Yeah, no updates, sicktiredflufalldownoww.

Meanwhile, anwyn18 about Elton John:
....have you heard his first couple of albums? It's like better-written emo.

Kinda puts the whole music debate into perspective (we were arguing about whether Korn or Papa Roach were better/first, whilst anwyn18 reckons they both suck).
The Blues was a precursor to emo too.
I'm so gonna get flamed for this.

From today's SMH - relevant sections bolded, comments in italics:

The Federal Government has promised that residents and workers will still be able to access Sydney during the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation summit, but flagged that special identification may be required.
A letter from an employer or other credentials may be needed to prove an individual has a "legitimate reason" to be in APEC security zones, said the general manager of media and communications for the APEC Task Force, Bernadette Ryan.

"[People will know] whether a bus stop has been moved or that their garbage will be collected ... and that businesses know whether their staff will have access to their premises." But what about all those pesky trains that have to run under the CBD?
The Prime Minister's office has said that the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation was conducting security assessments for APEC, including "politically motivated violence checks against ASIO databases, similar to those conducted for the aviation and maritime sectors and a string of special events including ... the 2000 Olympics and the Melbourne Commonwealth Games."  For those Cammies who don't know - you're on there because the organisation originated in Utah, which housed the Branch Davidian of the Seventh Day Adventists - the Whacos from Waco.
Ms Ryan said anyone with a legitimate reason to be in the city during the summit in September would be allowed to go about their normal business. I want to visit my fiance? Doubt that will get me through.
"I have no doubt that it will be small business in the city that will find it difficult," she said.
The chamber's members, which comprises large corporations, were supportive of APEC and expected to carry some cost from the "inefficiencies" that the summit caused, Ms Forsythe said. Can I have that in cash please?
She was unable to quantify the cost of the summit to business, noting a generic figure of $327 million as the cost of a public holiday in NSW. Except buses and trains still run on public holidays in Sydney.
Ms Forsythe said businesses were more concerned about the "unpredictable" nature of any protests than the known disruption of security measures. I don't want to protest the APEC stuff as much as I want to protest the disruption to my life.
Ms Ryan said organisers have run about 400 stakeholder briefings about the event for groups such as businesses and residents in the central business district and other APEC security areas.

Quite frankly, I don't care how many briefings you run, I'm not going to happy with this, and I'm not going to like it no matter how you spin it.

The big question is, why is Bush attending? The USA isn't a member of APEC (actually sirtwist  pointed out that the US is list under "United States", not "America", and so is a member economy. Ignore the rest of this paragraph), nor an observer, so we must conclude that he's a "guest", under the heading "Economies that are not official members of APEC" (on the basis that he's not business/private sector, an international organization or a community representative of any of the areas). So he must be there to give us economic tips, because his economy is doing soooooo well.

Canada is even a member, as is Korea (technically North and South), but the US isn't, and its economy is going bust.

I reckon that we're going to get an interesting "announcement" during the summit about a new member. The question is, why are we trying to link their economy and ours further?

There is a symphony that dances through every city, the bass kicking through the low places, the slums and stations, whilst the timpani arcs high overhead, weaving the destiny of millions.

Neither is more important, for what is a body without a heartbeat, or a soul without its dreams?

Interview this morning was great - it's wonderful to talk with people who don't look at me like I'm crazy understand that a full moon is likely to send the Cross insane this weekend, and high winds are going to ramp it up until then. satyrica, have fun, and stay safe, K?

In other news anwyn18 has gone nuts has had a marketing job of epic proportions handed to her and statichowl, so they both may be a little stressy in the coming weeks *pets*

Please be nice to them.

Son of Pancake Fest was awesome fun, with debates as to whether staplers were better than hole-punches (which I believe was described as using quantum physics and Zen simultaneously), paper better than cardboard (which devolved into an apples vs apple-pie argument) and sausages vs T-Bone steak (neither debater argued in favor of sausages).

In other news, after discovering the Paul W. S. Anderson (aka - the Tankdriver of infamy) penned the script for, and Sylvian White (of I'll Always Know What You Did Last Summer) will be directing, the Castlevania movie, phalnax  has inquired whether the following would be commercially viable:

Please send all commercial advice to:
Box 212
Monavale, NSW 2000*

In other news I have a job interview tomorrow at Taylor's Square tomorrow, which I thought I would have to walk to from Town Hall through the cyclone, but it turns out that they have a direct bus route  from Newtown *dances happily*

Does this mean that State Transit is catering to the queer subculture now (running direct links from Newtown/Sly Fox/Bank Hotel to Oxford Street/etc)? Why am I surprised by this?

OK, too much sugar, nap time now.

Caution, if I remember correctly this is the ABC's mailing address, so please don't spam otherwise ceilingcat will know and some horrible vengeance involving a magnet, microwave, oil-fire, garbage disposal, cooking oil, window, fire escape or other hilariously tragic consequence may befall you.
KThanxBye

I should probably stop reading as much cyberpunk/neo-cyberpunk as I do, but it is so interesting, and triggers such thoughts...

There are huge amounts of work out there, both academic and fictional, on the impact of the Big Brother concept (as opposed to the TV show - which is an abomination) on our lives.

Jennifer Government is a notable neo-cyberpunk novel where instead of the government watching everyone, the corporate contracts underpin society, and watches and controls their employees and consumers through the media.

We then have increasing instances where individuals are exposing their lives voluntarily to such concepts, which can provide themselves with huge benefits, such as this guy, who digitally records everything in his life, just like the Gargoyals from Stevenson's Snow Crash.

I'm just wondering whether the terms Little Brother (for individuals who log their lives fastidiously), and Middle Brother (who records and projects its facet of control) are appropriate. The Little Brother aspect seems to be becoming more prevalent, and I'm wondering is it's a reaction to the increased domination of traditional media by the Middle and Big Brothers.

I don't think that Orwellian distopias will occur, in much the same way that Marx's vision of the collapse of commercialism didn't occur due (according to many scholars) to the the welfare and charity sectors.
I think that the increased scrutiny from all institutions will continue, but that the individual's voice is no longer being lost.

I dunno, I just find the concept of media permutation and its effect on the future interesting.

I will admit to be pwn'd by klumsy_one  whilst he was drunk about directors, but I did not call The Godfather a soap opera (though I remember saying "generational", and soap operas do often contain this element.

It was our female companion that called it The Brady Bunch Mafia, which is where it got confusing. klumsy_one  knows his mafia movies far better than I do, citing Mean Streets (I think?), Goodfellas and Casino as Scorsese's views on multi-level mafia viewpoints.

But if The Godfather epic is a soap opera, then so is Twin Peaks (which, in my view, they're both not).

I'm so going to get flamed for this.

Meanwhile, only two photos up from it, I didn't get any more. You'll have to log on and be "family", as I haven't got proper clearance for release yet.

I wish there was something we could do, but it's starting to flood in here.

Pretty soon it'll be up to our waists.

We have to leave.

Oh, God, I don't want to die!