Have I mentioned I hate academia?

I've been chatting with one of the authors that's scheduled to speak at the Body Modification Conference; he's presenting an academic paper on suspension. I don't think he has bad intentions, but reading over his current draft paper I cringed the whole way through as it was almost exclusively half-truths, misinterpretations, and bizarrely inaccurate claims and assumptions about both modern and pre-modern ritual. Why is it that the longer a person stays in school, the less able they are to write accurately about real life? I'm beginning to think that all academic writers do well is quote each other in some sort of strange “let's add a bunch of letters after our names” circle jerk.

That said, it just makes me want to sponsor volatile or coldcell or another one of those rare academics who actually do get it, but to be honest, given what a deceitful, self-congratulatory, self-indulgent, and simply inaccurate piece of crap last year's event was, I'm not sure I'd want to do anything to help it.


“Suspension is all about the full release massage you get afterwards.”

Other than that I'd like to share this excerpt from a letter I got from a friend. I thought those of you coming to visit might find it interesting and/or useful advice:


The ferry to Mazatlan was wonderful. You two must do it sometime. 120 bucks for a cabin with two bunks, shower, john, fan. Nice resturant on the ship. I smoked pot with some Mexican kids on deck and watched a super sunset over the Sea of Corez while listening to Ranchero songs. In the morning I saw two whales and then the wonderful coastline of Mazatlan.

If you go, once in the port take a pulmonia to La Siesta in old town on Olas Altas. I recommend room 312, but anything on that side and floor is great. If you stay a week ask for a weekly rate. Old town is great, kinda a cross between New Orleans and Key West. Good resturants, the veggie one is called Ambrosia and it's quite good with a long ass menu, located near the Machado. Visit the market downtown and take a short trip to Stone Island (Isla de la Piedra) take a 4 peso bus or negotiate with a pulmonia driver for 20 pesos or so. Just for the hell of it and to see how the other half lives take the Sablo Centro bus to the Golden Zone for breakfeast some morning: Playa Mazatlan Hotel is nice on the beach, good fresh fruit plate.

Anyway, expect another article to be posted later today (a potentially inflamatory wrap up to the long dormant Shapeshift series), and other than that I'm continuing to chug through images and getting that all caught up. I'm only about one week behind, but that's farther than I like.

Finally, BME's drive upgrade may happen today so the main site may experience some downtime. IAM will be largely unaffected though, although things like the mail gateway and renewing accounts might be offline.

Wow Shannon, that's really annoying! What is it, 1997 on Geocities? Retroweb is NOT cool!

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