Tuesday, March 05, 2013

2000s, 2010s, 2020s

I noticed something interesting about how Deaf people used the internet between 2000s and 2010s.

In 2000s, we had blogs where plenty of Deaf individuals that wrote on various topics which often brought the heated discussions among each other. I remembered arguing with Elisa Abenchuchan, Joey Baer, Amy Cohen Efron, Shane Feldman, Alex Abenchuchan, Jesse Thomas, Allison Polk, Jason Lamberton, Chris Kaftan, Joseph Santini et al on many subjects.  Then after that, in person, we are all fine with each other. We do respect each other. In fact, whenever I saw them in person, we would have a good conversation. It was civilized, really. Except for Mike McConnell, I just can't stand the sight of him. So never mind him at all.

However, Elisa, Alex, Jesse, Jason, Chris, Joseph and so on - they would not try to silence or attack others by reporting or trying to shut our blogs down. I appreciate this kind of people. Why? Because as much as I rarely admit this, I learn something new from their views from time to time.

Fast forward to 2010s, with the age of Facebook & YouTube, a new group of Deaf individuals comes on the internet. Many are trolls. They became disruptive. They abuse the system in their warped attempts to shut or silence others down. They created fake usernames (I know of one person who created 10 different usernames just to sow the conflicts) with their goal: Do anything possible to destroy the others whom they might feel threatened or disagreed with. They would not engage in heavy discussions or arguments, they would do anything possible to get you silenced and at the same time, trying to drag your name through the mud by telling untrue allegations. Today, you have Lindsay Dunn who kept on trashing people from time to time. Same thing goes for Carl Schroeder, Julia Silvestri, Damon Stump, Sheri Ann Farinha, Vikee Waltrip, Robert L Mason, Steven Baier, Richard Roehm ... they participated in pushing for each other to silence the ones they disliked the most rather than to click on "x" and ignore whoever was writing on their webpages. They would try to ostracize the ones that may disagree with them by kicking them out of FB groups, by silencing them by reporting them to FB, by encouraging their peers to find their personal & workplace information in their warped attempts to get them in trouble with this, that and there.

10 years ago, it was not like that. Today, it is common. What prompted the change? I noticed that many older Deaf bloggers/vloggers has reduced, stopped and/or abandoned their blogs/vlogs ... out of fear.  Many said that they could not handle in dealing with the current group's malicious streak. I noticed this with myself as well. But I'm a fighter. I don't cower before these malicious people. I fight back. Why do you think I won the court where one family tried to bully me around with accusations regarding the posts on Facebook?  I am not the kind of person who will tone down my voice just because others threatened me with this, that and there. In fact, it made me more determined to do something about it.

However, I cannot help but wonder what it will be like in 10 years. I shudder to think what 2020s might look like ...

Cheers,

R-

Emotional Entities ... with Contempt.


It is an open secret that I'm a huge fan of Green Lantern in the last 8 years primarily because of this dude, Geoff Johns.  In fact, when I was a kid, I was not into Green Lantern mainly because I thought being part of intergalactic police using the green rings to cruise across the universe was dumb. To make things worse, its green rings were largely ineffective against anything that is yellow. Back then, Ron Marz plotted the series. They really never explained why the green power was powerless against anything that is yellow.

I'm not kidding that no Green Lantern can use its ring to pick up the yellow plastic chair or cup!  I vividly recall one story where John Stewart, another Green Lantern from Earth rushed to another planet named Xanshi, trying to stop the Blink Bomb from blowing the planet - The Blink Bomb is a bomb that can destroy the planets. Xanshi was destroyed because John could not stop the bomb from going off. Why? The Blink Bomb was painted with yellow.  That was one silly crap, in my opinion.

Green Lantern was not my thing back then because so many questions were not addressed nor dealt with. But I was a huge fan of another comic book character, Amethyst. No, I'm not going to talk about Amethyst in this entry. I intend to do that very soon on another entry. However, Amethyst's greatest enemy is none other than Mordru, an immortal being who is quite the most powerful sorcerer who was destined to survive the universe after it dies - in fact, it was said that Mordru was never born nor die.

Whenever Mordru or Amethyst makes an appearance in any comic book series, I pick it up. Many years ago, I instructed my old friend, Dylan Westbury, that if he saw Mordru or Amethyst pop up anywhere, he is to tell me immediately. And one day, he told me that Mordru is showing up in JSA, a brand-new comic book series plotted by Geoff Johns. I quickly purchased it up front.

That's when I was introduced to Geoff from that point on. He impressed me with his ability to revamp, introduce, develop, build conflicts and all that shit. For years, I was annoyed that other authors would portray Mordru as a villain whom you can beat up in your sleep - Many would treat Mordru as a pansy villain who you can fight and stop in *one* issue. But not with Geoff, he made sure that he is truly powerful & dangerous villain and it took many issues for JSA to stop Mordru. Not only that, the dialogues by Mordru towards others were fantastic. None of this would be possible if not for Geoff.

Later, DC Comics offered him to revamp Green Lantern, especially with Hal Jordan. Remember I was not a fan of Green Lantern but with Geoff doing the script, I just had to give it a try. He did a fucking great job. The readers finally found out why the green rings were powerless against yellow and so on. He basically built the mythology of Green Lantern and beyond. Green Lantern Corps is not just an intergalactic police department who are trying to restore order and peace across the universe. It is much more than that. Not only that, he also brought different colors which has their specific emotion - Each color has its own groups and their own missions. Geoff also explored on how the energies of each color works with their central power batteries as well as whether if it can work against different colors.  Geoff also explored the secrets within the Book of Oa which is guarded by the Guardians of the Universe.

Geoff made it clear that Green Lantern Corps are not democratic. It was not, it has not and it will never be one.

Geoff also introduced the Emotional Entities - these are creatures who were the *first* ones that experienced the specific emotion billions of years ago. For that, the universe granted them the immortal & immense powers of that specific emotion. As we learned, they cannot be killed. They can be contained by tossing it inside the central power battery. Often, they would possess the mortal bodies to do whatever it wanted. I mean, they're immortal beings who survived billions of years, they'll do whatever they wanted, right?

Needless to say, I was and am mesmerized by these entities.  I'm not going to explain all in details on these intriguing entities.  However, these entities are my favorite creatures in all of Green Lantern mythology.  Not a long ago in the beginning of the War of the Green Lanterns, a renegade Guardian Krona assaulted the Citadel where the Guardians converged on Planet Oa with the emotional entities and ambushed them in a quick succession. The image of the emotional entities seizing the Guardians are quite powerful. It tells me one thing:  The entities are oldest beings in the universe. They look at you with contempt.  They know more than you do in your lifetime.

Each time I see this image, I think of them staring at you or me with ... contempt.

So when I used them on my vlogs, it is my way of informing the viewers that the next segment is the one that I held whoever I talked about ... with contempt.

And from now on, if you see the image on the below on any future entries on my blog, it means that I am going to talk about someone else ... with contempt.

And here is the image that I was referring to.

Cheers,

R-


Monday, March 04, 2013

You Will Act The Way I Will You To Act, Ganthet.

Already I got a couple of emails asking me to fill in on the latest quote which I quoted from Geoff Johns of Green Lantern #17:

"You will act the way I will you to act, Ganthet."

This quote was uttered by Volthoom, the First Lantern who was imprisoned by the Guardians of the Universe in the Chambers of Shadows for billions of years after Volthoom acquired the full brunt of emotional spectrum powers. The Guardians deemed him as a threat to the universe because he has the powers to distort the time & space continuum.  But in the recent issues, Volthoom was freed and in turn, he imprisoned the Guardians as well as pulling the Guardians to do his biddings in changing the timeline.

Volthoom is immensely powerful. But he is also insane. Who can blame him? I mean, he was imprisoned for billions of years just because he acquired the full powers of emotional spectrum. This time, he is free to do whatever he wanted. But in this book, the Guardians mentioned that Volthoom was already crazy before he acquired the vast powers of emotional spectrum which Volthoom quickly denied.

However, I'm providing this image to show how confident and powerful Volthoom can be. The sentence itself is quite powerful - Volthoom knew the Guardians cannot truly stop him just like that.

And why does the quote strikes me very well at this time?  After what happened on Facebook and YouTube where people attempted to subjugate me on their own terms - I fought back. And this time, it is my turn. People who tried to subjugate me will do my biddings on my own accord.

You just watch me.

Cheers,

R-

Shame on you, Julia Silvestri

My latest 30-day suspension on Facebook occurred 3 days after I finished the 2nd 30-day suspension (Maria Dollhopf was the culprit that reported me to FB that led to my 2nd 30-day suspension). Julia Silvestri was the culprit who tried to silence me by reporting to FB claiming that I was harassing her when I was merely using her and others as an example of what is wrong with everything.

When Karen von Pills posted the personal information of Elena M. Ruiz, Julia Silvestri was one of several people who was very vocal in criticizing Karen von Pills for doing this.

What I saw was hypocrisy on these people. .  There was a similar situation that happened to me 3 weeks prior to this fiasco and I decided I'd write all about it on my wall via Facebook talking about hypocrisy and community accountability.

As you can see the post below, none of my post contained harassment nor offensive comments. It simply called out people who were full of shit themselves. That is why Julia Silvestri got irked and reported me to FB and I got suspended for 30 days for the 3rd time since July, 2012.

You can decide for yourself whether if this warranted the 3rd 30-day suspension for me on Facebook.

Shame on you, Julia Silvestri.

Cheers,

R-


"I had been thinking a lot. About a lot of things. Facundo Element made a post decrying Karen von Pills' blog for publishing Elena Ruiz's personal information. I received an email from Chad W. Taylor complaining about it as well. I saw dozens of people raising a fuss about what Karen von Pills did to Elena.

Meanwhile, Elena Ruiz quickly deactivated her FB account and currently masqueraded herself as a "bullying victim". Whatever.

I have nothing to do with Karen von Pills' blogsite. I will admit that when I saw the personal information on Elena, I did wince and cringe. I chose not to say anything about it. I leave it as is. Why? Why didn't I do something to stop it - some said, "community accountability" - What the fuck? Are you serious?

A couple of years ago when I lived in Virginia, someone posted my home address & phone number along with false accusations on the internet. I had to fight my way around. The cops stopped by my house 3 times because they said they got anonymous calls saying that I was manufacturing Meth. Never mind I don't use it nor knew how to make one. It was quite embarrassing & terrifying to deal with cops that stopped by your home at 2 or 3 AM in the morning.

Not even Sheri Ann Farinha, Julie Rems SmarioMarilyn Jean Smith, Facundo Element, Julia Silvestri and others raised a fuss about it. It is OK that it happened to me. It is not OK that it happened to someone else.

When I fought my way around - I was vindicated. But the damage is already there. I do not forget.

When I moved to Frederick, a certain group of Deaf people (Ella Mae Lentz, Robin Polin & Carl Schroeder to name few) called the CPS on my sister claiming that I was abusing my niece. The CPS stopped by and interviewed us all. I was baffled when the CPS stopped by. Few weeks later, someone shared me the email contents which proved that they came up with an idea to defame me by calling the CPS on my sister. They did it to retaliate because I produced vlogs that pretty much challenged & disputed their views.

Nobody raised a fuss about it. It is OK that it happened to me. But it is not OK that it happened to others.

When I started to post things on Facebook, my account was open to public. People started to abuse the Facebook system by reporting me to FB on this, that and there. They did this because they did not like my posts. I got suspended 4 times in a short time (50 days of suspension in 60 days) last summer. Very few people objected to this. Michelle InsaneMisha Passeck and Cheryl McGilvery Quintal was one of these people who noticed the repeated abuses by other people trying to silence me by getting me suspended repeatedly.

Last month, I decided to make my account private. And that I will monitor who's who on my list. During that time, I also had to deal with this individual who kept on taking my comments from my wall for his vlogs so he can twist it around and attack me repeatedly. That was the day I decided to unfriend Jerome Cain - that was my right to unfriend him, right? So I booted him out just like that.

Someone did not agree with what I did and reported me to FB. I got suspended for 30 days. During that 30 days of suspension, I was effectively muted on FB but I continued to tweet & make vlogs on my own. During that time, Jerome Cain and his friends made dozens of vlogs bullying me around. He even posted my workplace information and urged people to call my boss to get me fired. I had to battle my way around. I still have my job. Someone got the temporary Peace Order (Restraining Order) against me which I contested and won in the court three Fridays ago. At that time, I also had to be there for my mother who was hospitalized twice in a month. I also had to put up with one vlogger who claimed that I was jailed as well. All in the span of 3 weeks when I was muted on Facebook.

I fought my way around. I won. But when Jerome Cain posted my workplace information, nobody raised a fuss about it. Facundo Element did not post to protest the despicable actions that were placed on me by Jerome Cain and his pals. Not even Chad W. Taylor. Not even Leala Holcomb. Not even Ian Smith. Not even Joseph Santini. Not even Julia Silvestri.

It is OK that it happened to me. But it is not OK that it happened to someone else like Elena Ruiz.

And now Karen von Pills turned the table on Elena Ruiz by posting her information publicly and you're making a fuss about it?

Hypocrites.

And you talk to me of community accountability? My ass.

R-"

It Is Time To Resume The Blogging

As you can see, I'm back from the long hiatus. I was never away from the internet, really.  For a long time, I had stopped blogging mainly because my time & energy was spent on different venues such as vlogging on YouTube.

Twitter comes in my life a couple of years ago. I absolutely loved the concept of Twitter.  I still use it frequently. In fact, I tweeted more than 30,000 tweets as of far!  But many of my friends also flocked to Facebook.  So I went as well.  I posted a lot of stuff on Facebook.

Facebook is a great social networking for Deaf people where they can congregate and share their feelings, beliefs, thoughts and so on.  Sometimes it is healthy to make sure that people understand and uphold their
But man, Facebook is one of fastest growing social networking companies in the world but they truly suck at managing the system.  The result is that so many Deaf people would abuse the system by "reporting" the others in order to silence them from sharing their own thoughts.

I had been suspended for sixth time since last summer in July, 2012 (I got suspended for 3 days, 7 days, 15, days, 30 days, 30 days and 30 days) - All of them were reported by Deaf individuals whom I called & challenged them publicly about their wrongdoings & hypocrisy.  They reported to Facebook in order to silence me from questioning, challenging and hold them accountable for their fuck-ups.

This blog is being resumed because frankly, I'm tired of being treated this way by Facebook's incompetent management who got duped by these malicious Deaf individuals out to silence Deaf people at large.

These Deaf individuals who harassed me on Facebook by reporting me repeatedly to Facebook will be identified and scrutinized in next few entries. Payback can be a bitch, people.

This blog will not mean that I will stop using Twitter, YouTube or Facebook. I continue to use Twitter on daily basis. I continue to vlog on YouTube but from now on, I shall add the vlog on this blog as well. When I am unsuspended on Facebook, I shall resume my activities there but I have no intention of stopping this blog from now on.

However, you will realize that I am doing some renovations on my ancient blog.  It is time to bring it back. After all, it is long overdue.

Cheers,

R-

Saturday, April 04, 2009

Iowa Is Fabulous


'nuff said.

The Supreme Court of Iowa has deemed the 1998 ban on gay marriage as unconstitutional and has cleared the path for gays and lesbians to marry.

I will admit that I mistook Iowa as a backward country that often lags behind the rest of the country. Iowa may be the third state, first in the Midwest, to permit the gay marriages after Massachusetts and Connecticut.

This is progress, folks.

I never had an opportunity to visit Iowa in the past. But in the last 24 hours, I had been surfing some websites about visiting Iowa. Des Moines seemed to be interesting place to visit, though. My Dad told me a story about driving on Route 20 from Dubuque to Sioux City -- he said that the scenic was very plain but yet astonishing. The corn? They're taller than me (I'm 5'6") and Dad as well. He said it took nearly all day to drive from Dubuque to Sioux City (He drove there in late '50s).

Folks, I highly recommend y'all not to visit Utah and to visit Iowa should you make a plan for travelling. After all, Iowa is progressive and Utah is not.

Cheers,

R-

Sunday, November 09, 2008

Boycott Utah & SorensonVRS

It is time to boycott the state of Utah and the Jesus Christ Church of Latter-day Saints also known as Morons, er, I mean, Mormons.

The world headquarters of these Morons in Salt Lake City has called its gullible, feeble-minded believers to promote in supporting the Proposition 8 in California which discriminates against Gays and Lesbians from marrying their loved ones.

Many Moronic nutcases said that it is all about religion. P-hooey! By using religion as their defense, they ultimately lied through their yellowish teeth by actively discriminating and manipulating Gays and Lesbians in Arizona, Florida and California.

Again, again and again -- the gay marriage is all about equal rights -- It is about to ensure the rights, benefits and protection of a couple ensured through the legal means (Wills, insurance, rights, death et al).

It is time for us to get the Internal Revenue Service to revoke the Church's 501(c)(3) status mainly because they violated the rule by attempting to use its activities to influence and impact the legislation. Check this link for further information.

It is time for Deaf people across the country to boycott Utah by not travelling to the state of Utah. If you want to ski, go to Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, California and so on. But certainly not Utah.

It is time for Deaf people (especially the ones who are intelligent and open-minded) to halt using the SorensonVRS until they repent their sins.

It is time for Hollywood to boycott the Sundance Film Festival until the organization moves out of Park City, Utah to another state -- preferrably, Lake Tahoe or something like that.

Utah depends on tourism industry as it earns $6 billion per year. I'm sure with gay money, it can inflict heavy impact on Utah's tourism industry where it counts the most.

I call people to do the right thing -- that is to boycott the state of Utah completely.

These lyin' fools got away with killing people from Arkansas in September 11, 1857 and allowed the polygamists to run unchecked for decades in Hildale, Utah and Colorado City, Utah and often these polygamists would get rid of the younger boys by dumping them in Las Vegas, Reno, Portland, Salt Lake City and Seattle in an attempt to control the women in these communities. These brands of people whom practiced the religion under the name of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has bribed money to the International Olympic Committee in order to get them to have the Winter Olympics in Great Salt Lake.

All in all, these Mormons are not nice, noble nor good people at all. They are corrupted and the worst thing about them is that they do not see that they are wrong to start with!

Cheers,

R-