OK, the server is moved and everything appears just fine.
Some more notes I wanted to make on the membership/billing change stuff:
- If you are buying a membership rather than earning a free one, wait until the end of February to buy it. If you buy it now, while it'll work fine, you'll be paying for six months from today, rather than six months from the end of February.
- If you are a BME/HARD member (paid or free), your IAM access is free. Just use your BME/HARD account to authorize your page here. You don't have to buy anything else.
Oh, and want to see my solution to keeping thieves from stealing my computers? They've covered in stickers, and even have toys glued to the monitors… They have a very clear “Shannon fingerprint”.
I just did this brief interview with a student in Norway for his design course. I'm not sure it's interesting, but I at least liked my answer to question five.
Q1: At what age did you decide that you wanted to take your interest to the next 'level' (as in; start bmezine)?
I had just turned 21 when I started BME in late 1994. I don't think I decided I wanted to take my interest to the next level or anything like that. As an artist that certainly suffers from some level of grandeur delusions and narcissism, I've always been obsessive about publicly documenting my life. Before the Internet took off I did that through painting, comic books, zines, and music.
Q2: Why did you start bme?
Starting BME was never really a conscious decision. It was just something that I needed to do for myself; the first version of BME was literally just pictures of my body modifications. Then a few weeks later I added some pictures of friends of mine, along with a note that said "if you'd like me to add your pictures or story, email them to me."
And it just snowballed from there... But I'm happy that it started the way that it did, because it set the foundation for me to remember that it's not "my" website, but "our" website. I just got lucky and being in the right time/place allowed me to be the guy who makes most of the practical day-to-day decisions on how the site is managed... Actually, I'm not sure if "lucky" is the right word ;)
Q3: What would be your number one reason for still doing bme?
Well, first and foremost I enjoy doing it... But more importantly, I think it's contributing positively to the world. I believe that if BME stopped doing what it does, most of the aspects that make BME valuable would not be replicated by another site. To "do good", BME has had to make many sacrifices as far as things like commercial success and I am dubious that others would make the same decisions that I have. Q4: Keeping it as simple as possible, why is body modification important to you?
It's who I am.
Q5: What one fact should EVERYONE know about piercings?
They are normal and healthy expressions of being human.
Q6: What's the least known fact about underground surgery would you say?
That it's very responsible. On the whole, the public only sees the problem practitioners, since those are the few that tend to have run ins with the media or the law. Most practitioners will have forty year careers doing hundreds or thousands of procedures without ever setting off any flags. The best underground surgeons are invisible.
Q7: Are there any logs over body-mod related accidents in the USA in the last 5 years?
No, they are largely unrecorded. What little statistics exist are either glorified anecdotal extrapolations or are based on small and isolated groups that have questionable relevance on the larger whole.
