Casey-Lee

Whenever I wander past a bag/purse store there’s some gravitational pull that forces me to go inside. I know it’s very female of me, but I just love bags. Despite only buying a new one last week, I was forced by my insatiable obsession to wander into another bag store today. I was having a look around and the woman in the store directed to me to a display of Guess bags.

Holy beep.

Over the past few months I’ve noticed more and more Guess bags around - but NEVER have I seen so much ugly in one place. Concentrated evil. Oh how the pleather shone and the glitter burned into my retinas. For the life of me, I cannot understand the appeal of these ghastly things.

Overkill much? I don’t know what exactly they’re trying to achieve. I assume they’re supposed to look “designer” and not like someone threw up a pile of ugly and put straps on it. With a $300 price tag on several of them in the store, I am honestly ashamed of the female gender for forking out that kind of money for a plastic bag. They’re the type of bag I’d expect to see draped over the arm of a middle-aged woman with bleached blonde hair, excessive tan and hot pink claw-like nails.

Perhaps the most disturbing thing of all was that the Guess bags in this store were CHAINED TO THE DISPLAY CASE. I’m talking chains with big-ass padlocks. What kind of deluded criminal would want to steal something that hideous? :[

Needless to say I didn’t leave the store with a Guess back in tow. However, I wasn’t empty handed and I’m quite happy with my plain, boring GENUINE leather caramel Colorado purse.

I was talking to a friend, Alex, tonight. He received some ridiculous bulletin on myspace about the establishment of a White History Day. What the?  Ironically enough, this myspace page that apparently exists to create racial equality is covered in comments containing racial slurs.  Ignorant much?  After a bit of discussion with Alex, and reading his bulletin of ranting in response, I decided that I was irritated enough by this ignorance to bitch about it myself. This was further fueled by the poster (who shall remain nameless) of the bulletin in question who is even now continuing to vehemently defended his “white heritage” over two hours after the bulletin was posted.

For those of you too disgusted (or lazy) to read the bulletin, I’ll give you the gist. Basically, there are many American holidays that are celebrated by ethnic minorities - but none *gasp* that are allocated to “white ethnicity”. The poster of this bulletin argues that it is mortally unfair that “whites” are restricted from celebrating their heritage in the same manner as holidays such as Black History Month.

Generally, holidays serve a purpose. Holidays celebrating ethnic diversity (and all historical holidays for that matter) have been created throughout history to mark milestones. Some are linked to a specific date and a specific incident, while others (like Black History Month) are established for remembrance, education and awareness. Each country has their own holidays that are specific to the cultural development of that country, targeting cultures and heritages that have helped shape their society.

“White” is not a heritage. Half of our globe is made up of people of white skin. There’s as much ethnic diversity between Caucasians as there is between people of an entire spectrum of colours. “Caucasian” is made up of a series of subsets that hold their own heritages. Two thrown out by the poster of the bulletin were German and Swedish (his heritage that is so poorly and unfairly represented in America). Both of these countries have their own holidays in their respective countries that celebrate their cultural heritage. If one day I decided to pack up and relocate to America, should I begin complaining about the obviously racist intentions of not including a day dedicated to Australian’s in the American calender? Of course not. Australian’s have played no important role in the historical development of American society. I may as well move to a country that doesn’t speak English and start demanding they all learn it to accommodate me.

Ethnic holidays are based on nationalities. Asian holidays are for people of Asian-American heritage. Hispanic holidays are for people of Hispanic-American heritage (Mexican, Cuban, etc.). “Black” holidays refer to those celebrated by people of African-American heritage. Africa and Asia are continents. Mexico, Cuba and other Latin areas are countries. I may not have been a whizz in geography, but where exactly is “Caucasian” on the map? Skin colour and heritage are two completely different concepts. What exactly would a “white holiday” celebrate? Everyone sits around at a barbeque, shooting off fireworks and discussing the colour of their skin?

I could rant about this all day, but it’s past midnight now so I will leave it at that. A little food for thought.

Yesterday whilst visiting my chatroom an interesting topic came up. After a bit of a bitch about trolls being really irritating, someone announced that people troll because the internet isn’t real. I found this statement quite baffling. I know that for some, venturing online feels like entering a foreign country where no one speaks English; but is the internet so far removed from reality that it’s morphed into an alternate universe?

The internet can remove the accountability you have for your actions and bump up your courage points while you’re hidden anonymously behind your computer screen. People may behave differently under these circumstances and say or do things that they wouldn’t ordinarily do, but it’s still them, is it not? They don’t develop some alternate personality, it’s the same person with lowered inhibitions.

I’ve always hated the term “IRL” (In Real Life).

Example. I have this friend IRL that doesn’t use the internet.

What? I tend to avoid categorising my life into sections of real and make-believe, lest I develop schizophrenia. I really just don’t understand this distinction between “real life” and the internet. I don’t miraculously turn into some other person when I open my browser. The rules of interaction may change - I wouldn’t go up to someone in person and make little star (*) motions with my hands whilst hugging them - but the norms of communication are still essentially the same, no? You’re still communicating with a real and tangible person and it’s still possible to develop ties and feelings with that person.

Granted, there are many out there that aren’t honest about themselves online (tsk tsk) and take advantage of the anonymity that the internet provides; but there are liars and assholes everywhere. They follow you into your “real life” too. I know several.

I use the internet a lot. It’s my source of income as well as a hobby. As far as I’m concerned it’s a part of my life, not a separate entity floating along beside it. Honestly, I feel bad for people that need to maintain a second life to make their first bearable. I’m far too lazy for that.

Apparently not on the internet, but you probably knew that already.

I have a pixel graphics subscription site - Doodlebug Pixels. I use a membership script called aMember Pro to manage my member area and to handle payments through PayPal. One of the first things I noticed when I installed aMember about 6 months ago was that there is absolutely no encryption on passwords, i.e. anyone with access to the admin panel can plainly read the password information of each member.

aMember is a very popular script with pixel subscription sites similar to my own. Those not wishing to pay the high price for it ($139.95 on SALE - it’s been at that “limited time offer” price since I purchased it back in May) and attempt to make sense of the broken English in the user manual use standard webprotect through cpanel, set up with login information provided by subscribers.

All in all, this makes for a lot of unsecured passwords floating around the pixel community and a lot of reliance on the morals of the website owners keeping them. Unfortunately not every person out there is ethical and a couple of days ago I heard something on the e-grapevine that I found very disappointing. Apparently a certain webmaster decided to take advantage of the smorgasboard of login details provided by her subscribing members and use them to login to other websites without the consent of the people belonging to them; essentially gaining free access to sites that her members had paid subscription fees to access.

This really pissed me off! Virtually every website that I own collects various forms of personal information from members. I would never, ever even consider using the personal information entrusted to me in any way that wasn’t intended to benefit my users. I certainly wouldn’t take advantage of my position and access to the personal information of my members for my own benefit.

After a bit of thought, I set up a quick page about privacy in the pixel community and why confidentiality is important - http://privacy.doodlebugpixels.com

Basically, pixel website owners wishing to show their members that they believe in confidentiality and the protection of private information can display one of the buttons I have provided on their site, linking back to my Privacy Protected page. In return, I add them to the list of privacy supporters. Simple concept, yes? Yeah, I thought so too until the woman that inspired this little project decided to submit her site and display the button on her site. Honestly, I’m baffled by the nerve of this woman. Her submission was swiftly followed by another email asking if I would trade memberships with her. Not likely!

Despite that little bump in the road, I’m pleased with the response this idea has received. I virtually had 30 supporters overnight and already have plans for more information to add…