On the subject of Bruce Tillson

Thursday, January 6, 2005

Hey Google, I've got a story for you to index. There are people in this world who get off on complaining. I don't know why. Maybe they want to see their name on a critical letter to the editor or maybe they're just miserable people. Probably somewhere inbetween the two. I really am not sure. Anyway, earlier today I got an email from Bruce “I wanna lick you all over” Tillson.

Subject: AS a member of the medical community.....

I am a psychologist and I have seen many of these types of behaviour in both younger people and adults.
Body Modification , as you so gently refer to "cutting and mutiliation" is a sickness.

The act of normal tattooing and piercing is a cultural ritual that has been arpund for several thousands of years and is pretty much accepted by society until one's actions become actual mutilation and present a medical ahzard to the human body.

Self-mutilation is a self destructive act that can bring hazardous results to the practioner. This activity is not socially acceptable in any form or fashion.
To take the risk of injury or even death is not to be taken lightly and out in a "glamorous light" as your website does.

I , in my own opinion , should be guiding the self abuser to find help not to encourage this behaviour.

With this age of bacterial infections that are resistant to all known antibiotics and the "flesh eating" infections, one leaves themselves open to serious health risks.

If you are an adult and I believe you are , maybe a little more responsibilty in your presentation of this serious social problem is in order.

I had a 14 year old daughter that was sucked into self mutilation. She began doing it for social acceptance. She was not abused, she had a wonderful family life, and was well liked in school.

We found out about her "habit" when we were summoned to the emergency room one afternoon , after school , because one of her "friends" had attempted to "sculpt" a Celtic figure on her left leg and in the process severed an artery at the site.

Her lag eventually had to be amputated and 3 months after she died of a staph bacterial infection that was caused by tetanus. Noit from the surgical instruments but by the knfe and razor blade used by her "friend".

Her "friend was chagred and convicted of involuntary manslaughter. He was 16 at the time of the incident. He was tried as an adult and will be in prison for 22 more years.

At least he will have the chance to have a life. My daughter will not.

Get these people to stop what they are doing if you can at all do something to help them. These photos "glorify" this type of sick behavior.
Your site does a wonderful job of showing the lengths that people will go to except , the way you present it, it appears to be safe behavior.

Good Luck

Good Luck.

Well that was an elaborate and far-fetched tale… but…

Bruce Tillson aka “gitarguy” is no doctor. If you couldn't guess it from the poorly constructed email, his numerous letters complaining about everything from Eminem to the liberal media (or as he puts it so tastefully and eloquently, the “whore press”), coupled with incessant hitting on girls in their guest books is a good secondary indicator. I was in the middle of writing the submissions emailer and I really didn't have time to waste on some joker who doesn't even want to whine honestly, so I replied simply (all my replies in this entry are in red),

Yeah, whatever, "doctor".

You're well known as a habitual liar with nothing better to do than send whiny letters. You really ought to go back to messaging girls how you'd like to lick them all over. At least that just made you look like an idiot.

What, you didn't think I could find out who you were in 60 seconds? Get a life.

His online history for the last few years was remarkably accessible, and thanks to the power of deranged US capitalism that'll sell anything to anyone at bottom-dollar prices, so was his home address, phone number, social security number, credit details, and so on if I (or you) wanted it. Like most assholes though, I guess he was kind of surprised to have his ruse called. He replied,

Just who the fuck are you??

I seriousy doubt if you know anything about me

Sorry, Bruce, I really do know all about you. I replied,


Feel free to think that, it makes no difference to me.

Got a problem with how readily available your records are? That's a matter for you to take up with your bank.

Now go hassle someone else.

Bruce still wasn't entirely convinced that I was telling the truth I guess, and summoned up his last bit of courage with his reply,

First,,why are you such an angry person?
Second,, where do you get the idea that I write to girls and tell them I want to "lick them all over"??

Angry? You've got me all wrong, Bruce. From my point of view this is a chuckle factory. But I only have so much time, so I'm going to have to cut this conversation short.

I'm not angry, you're the one sending me deranged lies. As far as where I get my ideas, do you need me to quote you exactly? Here we go: "Just want to tell you that if it were at all possible, I would like to lick you from the ground up!!!!!" or maybe you prefer this quote: "I would love to spend a week climbing all over that beautiful body of yours !!!!!"

Your internet usage is very easy to track.

Now, unless you'd like to offer some proof for your claims, go hassle someone else.

Time for Bruce to run away now.

Listen. You have your issues and I have mine.
Let's leave it there and move on. If I bothered your "space" I apologize. I have a right to my opinion and so do you.
My story is true....maybe this didn't happen to me but it happened to someone close to me.

Peace

Yeah, it happened to “a friend”. Sure, Bruce… but I suppose I'm cool with peace. If he sends me another message maybe I'll amuse myself by sending him a satellite photo of his house. That's always a good one that really fucks with people's heads.

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All tattoo BME update

Thursday, January 6, 2005

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I've just posted another BME udpate. I told you I was going to be posting them constantly! I know that when I said that in the past it didn't always happen, but with the new buffered update software, it's a lot easier to achieve. Anyway, this update is all tattoos (main tattoo galleries, tattoo portfolios, and a few pieces of flash). Thanks to everyone who sent in their photos, and to Sabrina for the cover shot (I don't think she's on IAM, but correct me if I'm wrong).

Sorry people haven't been getting messages letting them know the URLs of their submissions. Because there's now a gap between when an image is processed and when it's actually added to the site, I can't use the old membership tool to send that information. But I'm going to write a new tool for that today, so if you've got an image up in 2005, expect that email later today… unless your ISP is total blacklist blocking Mexican-sourced messages (parts of AOL and hotmail are, as are wanadoo.fr and others — it really sucks).

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More Baja Coast Photos

Wednesday, January 5, 2005

  Went out with Jon to the beaches again this afternoon. Canada is a beach country as well, but I never get tired of it, especially when they're long deserted stretches. We took the (rented) Jeep off-road, maybe about two miles past the end of the official road. It wasn't a bad trail though, the only part that worried me were some of the sandier dunes because we could have easily gotten bogged down.

I don't think I included any of them in the pictures above, but there were a few houses (and impromptu shacks) scattered among the mountains overlooking the ocean. I can't imagine the land costs much. Part of me thinks it would be a good idea to buy twenty acres and just offer it to anyone here that's willing to put in the time of building some earthships. I believe it could be done for an incredibly minimal investment financially… the only investment would be a lot of hard work. But in trade for a better life… I wonder if that appeals to anyone reading this?

Yeah, I still think about Project Drop Out Tune In all the time!

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…and it begins

Wednesday, January 5, 2005

…the propaganda, that is!
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BME update and various commentary

Wednesday, January 5, 2005

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I've just posted another BME update — this time it's about a thousand images in BME/extreme (and e2 as well). Mainstream stuff will start getting added tomorrow. Thanks to Brian0icu812 for being the cover model and of course everyone else who helped out as well.

The upload took a little longer than expected so I'm going to ramble for a while. Let's see what else I can talk about… Allen just posted a list of his “five favorite bands from highschool”, and I was just talking to Rachel about the same list a couple days ago, so I thought I'd post my own, in no particular order:

  1. Skinny Puppy — Bites and Remission are literally the first albums I ever bought (on the same day).
  2. Throbbing Gristle — does it surprise you that small record stores in rural communities carried most of their extensive catalog? It surprised me.
  3. Yngwie Malmsteen — yeah, laugh it up. Don't laugh too hard though, or I'll unleash the fucking fury. I still listen to this stuff when I'm programming.
  4. Pink Floyd — No surprise there.
  5. Guns'n'Roses — Mostly because I was in a GNR cover band, Appetite For Destruction era.

I should do another list some time of the music I listened to after highschool (which is pretty similar to what I listen to now). The day music changed for me was the very first time I did acid, and walked into a strangers room just as the first burst of Slowdive's Losing Today started to play.

I feel I really should mention that tomorrow, January 6th, is the day that Bush in theory is confirmed again as President of the United States of America. Rep. John Conyers has been trying to fight it and get the truth about the fraudulent election out, but he's being blocked by both big business (who are refusing access to exit polling data among other things) and the White House.

It really blows my mind that Americans won't tolerate a rigged election in the Ukraine (with far less “evidence” of that than there have been stateside) and were instrumental in getting a new election, but won't do the same in their own country. Very very strange. But I guess it's easier to admit that there's something wrong with someone else than acknowledge it in yourself.

But let me point out a number: The cost of having a second election is less than being in Iraq for a day. Ah, priorities. But let me explain how the price of a US could be brought to almost nothing, if you think elections are something you should try and cut costs on:

ATMs can double as voting machines.
 (note: I've seen others propose variants on this also; it's not just my idea)

The ATM banking network is increibly secure. It confirms identity as well as any voting station does. It provides a paper trail, and high-speed electronic tabultion. The network is already in place — all it would take is the five biggest banks agreeing on a method.

It wouldn't be universal of course since not everyone has a bank account or credit card, but it would massively reduce the problems, simplify things, and secure them.

But it won't happen, because at their core, the average person (not just in America) doesn't really care all that much about democracy as long as they've got food in their belly and a roof over their heads. We're herd animals, us humans, and only a small percentage of us want to have freedom — the rest are actually much happier as slaves (as long as we're not actually forced to admit that we're slaves).

So we've got Kid Rock playing the Bush inauguration “youth party”. Let's sample some lyrics:

Pimp of the Nation, I could be it
As a matter of a fact, I for see it
But only pimpin hoes with the big tush
While you be left pimpin Barbra Bush
What's up granny
First name Annie
Dried up cunt and a saggin fanny

I screw hoe's from Shamiqua down to curly Sue
You think i'm jokin, i'm pokin your girl, she lovin me
Sugar walls to my balls that how i'm shovin it
Wham bam thank you mam a dirty nigger wrote
And if your man wanna trip i'll let the trigger go
Pop, pop, pop, pop, now watch that nigger drop

hey faggot where's your friends
cause you know that you can't hide alone
you know you're shit
so hit him in the face, in the face
come on do it again
in the face, in the face

That's just some random picks, it's far from the most “offensive” stuff in his roster, but you get the picture. Now, I'm not saying that should be censored or even that I particularly have a problem with it — I'm 100% cool with Kid “all I do is curse and fuck” Rock being on the market. Hell, if you come down for BMEfest, I encourage you to bang the girls gone wild Bush twins in Los Cabos. But I do question that “American Bad Ass” is the kind of thing that should define a Presidency. But if that's what Bush wants to endorse, I suppose you either tolerate it or go to prison.

I was thinking a little bit more about the tsunami numbers, and this story got me wondering… It's interesting to note that civil war has killed as many people in Sri Lanka — and far more in Indonesia, although not as recently — as the tsunami did. Sri Lanka was known as “The Island of Death” long before the big wave struck, and its violence overflowed around the world (we certainly had Tamil Tiger gangs in Toronto when I was living there).

Saw this via MeFi; I'm not really much of a fan of “hipsters” (or of Bill Murray, not that I have a problem with him or anything), so I got a kick out of the intro (and extro) to this review of The Life Aquatic.

What will the hipsters be remembered for? The last few months I have raised this question in Brooklyn, on the sagging couches of its Brownstones and over the din of the glowing jukeboxes in its dives. The most common answer is "Nothing." New York Rock? So much retread. The hipsters' championing of vintage clothing? Sorry, you can't be remembered for remembering. The embrace of white-trash chic — trucker hats and so on? Interesting but evil. Though not authentically evil. The hippies had Charles Manson, one friend noted. "We haven't even produced a decent serial killer."

[snip] The failure of The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou may just be a sign — along with last year's dud Belle and Sebastian album — that the Age of Twee is finally over in hipsterdom. Come to think of it, I've been seeing a new breed of male around Brooklyn lately. He's put on some weight, gotten burlier, more menacing, and grown a beard. He drinks harder and he's been stealing the pretty girls from the effete indie boys. The trucker hat is gone, and his hair's starting to thin. He looks, well, sort of like Charles Manson.

At a couple of the BME BBQs particularly “hip” folks have occasionally come, although the wonderful irony is that at least around here, the freaks and geeks crowd fits in perfectly. It's kind of funny to watch the hipsters, because they sit by themselves in a small group in the corner, well-dressed and scowling at all the unfashionable folks enjoying themselves. If only they could watch themselves from the top of the suspension tower.

Finally, there's a very good quote from my father in the Whatever forum;

“I NEVER LOST what I LEARNT near death hence I am unable to rejoin the living.”

I know that there are enough people reading this that have skirted very close to death, some even having crossed the line and come back. I wish there was a way to explain life without having to ask a person to experience death, but it's the only way to get the big picture.

The story I am about to tell you is true.

An old friend of mine that is in a very specialized high end job (I'm sorry, that's all I'm willing to say, so don't bother asking about it) requiring a great deal of loyalty and trust had to commit suicide to get that job. Surrounded by doctors, they held him under freezing water until both his breathing and his heart had stopped — to get the job, he had to be able to control himself to the point where he confronted death without a struggle. Once he had died, they revived him, and he was reborn.

I kid you not.

Enjoy the nightmares.

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