The Ultimate Vampire Resource and Directory

Just kinda thinking...Dinner Pathology
01:46 May 29 2008
Times Read: 877

Poor STABB had some thoughtless vegetarian ruin his nice cold glass of milk by pointing out that it was "bovine lactate."



It did make me think. I put this as a comment in his journal and thought I'd add it here, too:



Those damned vegetarians.



On a similar note...if people get really bad maladies, like cancer or even just the snot-productive varieties like flu, do you ever visualize those illnesses in the meat? Like, especially the rare meat? I mean, do you think they check the animals that thoroughly before butchering them? And even if it does cook enough or is species-specific so you won't get ill, does the idea of eating a steak of a cow with something mild, like a yeast infection or maybe early renal disease kinda gross you out? I wonder if we could look at it under a microscope after it's cooked, like a cow autopsy, would we be able to find traces of the disease in the sliced morsel?

You're a mean one, Mr. Grinch
00:02 May 29 2008
Times Read: 895

So, I'm at work and I hear a little sound. Someone has sent me something on Skype. Well, looky here, Ockham has sent me a link. Usually, Ockham is a "no click zone" until Irony previews and lets me know it's rated Joli. But I see that it's a Penny Arcade cartoon, so I click.



Must...not...laugh. Coordinator is in my office consulting with my assistant about a client and I must not laugh. I suck my lips into my mouth and and bite my cheeks. Must...not...laugh.





This isn't over, Ockham. This is not over!

I AM Protected!
04:00 May 25 2008
Times Read: 983

Morrigon made the suggestion and it was brilliant! My profile is now equipped with pepper spray. Look out you ign'nt commenters! Thank you, Ockham. You are the wind beneath my wings :P

Sickening and Criminal Neglect
19:43 May 23 2008
Times Read: 1,063

I apologize in advance, VR. I am angry. Angrier than I have ever been. So angry that I just substituted dry crackers for my lunch so that my nausea doesn't blossom out of control.



Remember the son and blind mother? Well, there have been hiccups along the way and they are still housed in the motel. A change has occurred in the last 48 hours and the son has gone missing. That leaves a frail, blind senior in a nasty motel without a caregiver.



I am VERY concerned that she is in danger. What if she falls in the bath tub, or something worse? i have called agency after agency. I am going to document here what my experience was just so that I can clear my head. I plan to email agency directors and congress members with what happened today. You may not want to read on.



Motel Landlord - contacted us. He is very concerned about her being there and something happening. He doesn't want to evict her, but they are only paid through yesterday. We are willing to pay for her to stay there, but as soon as agencies discover that, the immediacy of the situation is blunted.



Adult Protective Services - I call this agency, already dispatched out there last week. They have a case worker. Case worker tells me that this is a whole new case now that she is alone. Their turn around time will be a maximum of a week before any decisions could be made. I tell the details...no progress.



Social Services Director of our Parish - I call to report this situation. I am told to call the Advocacy Center who will move quickly because they have the legal ability to do so. I ask them why this can't be expedited. they tell me again to call the Advocacy Center.



Advocacy Center - I call. They are baffled. They are a legal advocacy. They have no funds or ability to intervene in such matters. I explain the critical nature of this situation...no progress.



Elderly Protective Services (New Orleans Office) - I call and have the most unprofessional social service "professional" that I have ever encountered talk to me. Her attitude is bored. My attitude is NOT. she tells me there is no housing. she tells me they have no funds. She tells me that since my client has no address, they cannot help her. This is where I come unglued.

I say: "Let me make sure what you are telling me. I want to be sure I understand. If an elderly person is homeless and in danger, elderly Protective Services will not help. Is that correct?"

Pause. She says, "Where is she?"

"In a motel in __________."

"Oh, we don't serve that area."



Elderly Protective Services (St Tammany Office)- I call. The motel landlord has already called. They have some roadblocks that I diffuse. One of them is:

"If we find her a nursing home, they'll require that she has a TB skin test and a few other tests ASAP and she doesn't have transportation." My head begins to ignite. WTF?! SHE'S BLIND AND ALONE! Of course she doesn't have transportation...that's part of the whole picture here. THAT is a stumbling block?! It should be a criterion for expedited care!

I say, "Do not let that be the obstacle to services here. I will insure that she will be taken to those tests if I have to take her in my van."

"It's Friday, nobody is going to call me back."



At this point, I tell her what I didn't want to say...I can cover that motel cost, but I believe it is dangerous. I will do it as an alternative to her being put on the streets blind and helpless, but I don't want agencies to use that knowledge to mean that this is not an emergency. I tell her that the landlord is rightfully worried about liability in addition to his concern for her safety. I tell her that if something happens, he will say that our Center knew. I assured her that I will let everyone know that we have no clinical authority and will be sure to convey that Elderly Protective Services was aware of her dangerous and emergency status. She said she'd call us back. We close in 25 minutes and I have heard nothing.



Meanwhile, frightened, sick, lonely, blind old lady sits in a motel room wondering if her son is dead. Wondering what she should do. She has called police, emergency rooms, and everyone she knows. This is uncharacteristic of him. We have known him for years. We are frightened, too.



This is unconscionable.

Write, people...write!
14:02 May 23 2008
Times Read: 1,076

I want to see more "new" tags next to my favorite journals. Thoth, you're on notice!



Kudos to Morri, VW, and birra for the most updates. You are the gold, silver, and bronze Joli medalists.

Bloodlife was DQ'd because most of his were Who's Online cutouts. Yes, the shameful "Too Silly DQ."



MORE! Feed me!

PRIVATE ENTRY
08:00 May 14 2008
Times Read: 1,123


• • • • PRIVATE JOURNAL ENTRY • • • •

PRIVATE ENTRY
07:41 May 14 2008
Times Read: 1,124


• • • • PRIVATE JOURNAL ENTRY • • • •

PRIVATE ENTRY
07:40 May 14 2008
Times Read: 1,125


• • • • PRIVATE JOURNAL ENTRY • • • •

Words matter
13:38 May 12 2008
Times Read: 1,163

The word, "babe" indicates one of two things to me:



1. You are familiar with the person you are addressing enough that affectionate terms like this are warranted. This is especially what it conveys when written. If you are NOT that close, why would you type it to someone? It feels like the internet version of someone spending a little too much uninvited time in another's personal space. Stop it.



2. You are a musician from the 70's. If this is the case, it's almost kinda endearing if you're wearing your shades and holding a trombone, but just misses and ends up being losery and weird. It hangs out there and blinks in a neon "I am awkward" kind of way. Best to just stop it.

This math checks
18:23 May 07 2008
Times Read: 1,190

No need to check your work here.

Not Just For Fish
17:57 May 04 2008
Times Read: 1,236

A few of you have been encouraging to me lately in my uncharacteristic "down-ness." Thank you. I've felt blah and run down and I'm dealing with a soul-sucking person who needs to move on. I finally found out what's wrong with me. I have "Ick."





Ick may refer to:



* Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, a single-celled parasite. (mmm hmm...CHECK!)



"Ick" is also a slang English term for something distasteful. (Oh yeah)



An Ick infection looks as though someone has sprinkled salt on the organism. (Sure feels like it.)



CAUSE



Ick/Ich is always present in the tank (environment.) Stress is the main cause of Ick/Ich. Your fish can get stressed as a result of many things. I have found that Ick/Ich seems to show up most often when I add new fish to the tank. Almost every time I bring a fish home and add them to a tank within a few days not only does the new fish develop Ick/Ich, but several of the other fish as well. Very frustrating. (Imagine that.)



They have left their happy home, and been transported to a new environment.





Beam me up, Scotty...there's no place like home...there's no place like h.... Ick.

Copyright debate
02:00 May 03 2008
Times Read: 1,373

The following is not here to slam this person. The two of us are cordial and I respect his right to have a different opinion from my own. I do not, however respect THE OPINION itself.





? wrote:

..liked the piece on copywright.

..don't agree with it, but I appreciate it.



Joli wrote:

You disagree about people taking and using what does not belong to them?



? wrote:

several times here.. images I've manipulated, ot created, have 'gone missing.'

why complain?

I put the work 'out there'.. and that said.. when it is.. it is acquirable, as I used to do.

..

I was flattered.

..

the other part of the argument, from my point of view, is that 'they' have been ripping 'us' off for years.. a little payback is well over due.



Joli wrote:

That is your choice...so, you probably don't bother copyrighting them. I don't like the notion that anyone would feel like stealing is OK.



If my work is copyrighted, that is saying that I have put it out for you to look at, but I don't expect you to just take it without permission and use it in whatever way you see fit.



If an artist hung his work on a museum wall for your enjoyment, would you think, "I like that...I think I'll take it." How can you even defend such a position, ___________?



? wrote:

the same way record companies have, ripping us off.

the same way those two people did, when they acquired my work. it is there.. it's like the mountains, the birds, the vista before me.

..it's there.



Joli wrote:

I especially don't understand the "us" and "they" part when talking about art. You have been continually ripped off by artists?



? wrote:

..I have, several times. the commercialism of the creative process, by those who bastardise it for profit are alo the 'they'. people like MGM, Damien Hirst.. the bed unmaking lady.. art is/ or should be.. art.

..not business, making exhorbitant sums, for a few.



Joli wrote:

That does not make it right, _____. If I create something beautiful and share it, I am not "us" nor "they." And I don't deserve to be robbed because I created beauty.



You of all people, who rail against injustice, championing the little guy...you have allowed yourself to be poisoned and desensitized to the point that you have muddied your own perceptions about what is CLEARLY right and wrong. I'm surprised and disappointed, to put it mildly.



? wrote:

I noticed. but I've seen too many grey suits wearing glasses making money through the creative process, while real reators make nish.. all wrong.



Joli wrote:

You drug in an entirely different argument. I was talking about individuals creating art and it belonging to them because they created it, NOTHING about big businesses or huge profits.



You're justifying theft by using faulty logic, my friend.



? wrote:

think of all those nomarks.. like Tracy Emin. they're allowed to be the pretentios twits that they are, coz too many are prissy about it all.

thing is.. the difference between me and my brother is that I can create, whilst he goes to the Falklands and uses guts and enterprise to help transport people and save lives. which is more valuable.. and worth it.. ?

..not art.



Joli wrote:

_____, they DO NOT EQUATE. There are tons of things that may be measured "more valuable." It doesn't make stealing OK. How can you not see that simple point?



? wrote:

because I learnt to draw by 'stealing'. because every artist who bases his work on anothers has liberated ideas that are not his own.

grief, in comic class we were taught there were about six original stories: so there's been a lot of 'theft' going on, hasn't there?



Joli wrote:

You are talking about inspiration, _______. Not taking someone's whole work and passing it off as your own or using it in a way the artist did not give permission for.



How would you feel if someone took one of your drawn images or a photograph of you that you took and pasted it up on a "Ban the Use of Recreational Marijuana" poster? or some other cause or usage you did not agree with? THAT is the issue. Theft. Not inspiration or any other bogus rationalizations that make you feel better because you did it. I'd have more respect for you to say, "when I did it, it was wrong...it is wrong now, and will always be wrong" rather than, "it's ok because I did it and lots of people do it...it's get them because they get us."



I cannot emphasize enough how sickening that kind of reasoning is to me. Rationalizing bad behavior does not make it good behavior. Own it and move on. I'll dislike your behavior, but at least the comprehension would be sound.

A Promise Waits if You Read All The Way Through
17:06 May 02 2008
Times Read: 1,387

Morrigon can't get enough of Birra's journal and I can't get enough of hers. She frequently makes me suss out my own ideas on a subject. Recently, she's made an entry on copyrighted images. It's a subject close to her heart.



I challenge you all...Be proactive; take those images down! Get out your camera. If you can't do that, describe to a creative friend what images you'd like. A few pictures plus descriptive text can make a stunning profile. Cluttered is NOT better. Less is more. If that doesn't work, try a site with stock images that you can buy very reasonably. They can often be manipulated easily (darkened or photo shopped.) Give us something we won't see on every profile page on this site...take some pride. If none of that works, leave it whelpishly Spartan. At least it's honest.



It actually is not ok to use copyrighted images on VR. It IS against the rules. But because it would take a full time staff and lawyers, we have a process in place to protect the owners of artwork. This is cut from the VR TOS:

XXII. VIOLATIONS



VampireRave.com fully complies with the DMCA ("Digital Millenium Copyright Act of 1998"). For more information regarding our DMCA policy, please visit http://www.VampireRave.com/dmca.php



I'm no artist. My worries center on posting my poetry and writing on the internet. I take the risk, but having something stolen from you always feels like a personal violation. Because IT IS.



Take a look at my profile. As uncreative as I am, (I don't even own PhotoShop) I have managed to take my own images and find a way to build a profile around them. They reflect my back yard and the town I live in. You'd be surprised what you could shoot in your own back yard that would be interesting for us to look at. I don't aspire to have an eye-popping account, only something that reflects me. It's simple and I think I accomplished my goal.



The only image that I didn't take with my own camera was taken for me and given to me by STABB. My background of an interesting pattern of smoke was done by Morrigon and given to me (even though I begged her to let me pay for it!) Please note that both are credited.



It takes no special skills to put together something that is uniquely YOU. There really is no excuse for being lazy since this site has so many generous people willing to help you. It pleases me to look at my profile and know that nobody else has the same images. I hate the popular and boring "vampire" images that everyone pastes up. Honestly, when you see them, don't you scan right past?



Here's my promise to you. An incentive rating. If you take down all the copyrighted images on your profile and put up only your own stuff, I will rate you a ten. Message me and let me know. Even if it's not my cup of tea, I will support your efforts and your own style.



I'm actually inspired to change my own up, thinking about what I might photograph next to create a new feel. If I EVER get that perfect shot of the elusive egret, maybe I'll make that my focus.

02:45 May 02 2008
Times Read: 1,402

Such an incredibly hard day. There just are no words.