Who the Frak are YOU: The RI Membership Directory

[BrandonD]

Mundane facts: 38 years old. My day (night) job is as a DJ for a dance club in my city. Before this I was a contract pixel artist for iphone and android games. My speciality is in retro 16-bit style graphics. I've drawn so many thousands of these that you could look at one every hour for the remainder of your life and you probably wouldn't see them all.

I play in a band that has had some moderate success. We've been on an MTV commercial as well as the soundtrack to a recent major Hollywood movie (an awful movie I will admit, but it paid well).

Less-mundane facts: I hate and love everything while also harboring a tired disinterest. Maybe they are all ultimately the same. I acknowledge my internal contradictions, but place most of the blame on the english language and the fact that we've conditioned ourselves to think in words. Ours is a language for crude commerce, not the nuance of an abstract reality underlying all human experience.

I think that's about as far as I want to dip my toe into personal waters. Like many of you guys I'm still kinda paranoid about publicly revealing my precise identity, but that should be a decent bit of introduction for starters.

[82_28]

I wouldn't worry too much about your info and identity, Brandon. Many of us in the Pacific Northwest have all met up in real life many times as well as others from as far away as Maine. I have yet to meet a dick or agent who plies RI. Many years ago I was super scared to go to Metafilter meetups. But I found everyone was cool. In fact most of my best friends I have were all met over the Internet. We just had anti-war, occult-curious blogs "back in the day" and we all wound up living together for a time. We still write together. Of the about dozen peeps I've met who post here, none are creeps.

I think you get to imagining that people aren't who they are -- esp with the topics this place has covered over the years. Yet to meet anyone at all evil, all said. Everyone in fact has been 100% kind and gracious.

EDIT: To include that you can't find me online anywhere if you searched for my real name (a benchmark I am proud of). So, I hear you. I've always kept my identity hidden insofar as having a "real name". I share a lot of shit, but have always made it opaque. This is from years of hanging out with hackers and phreakers drilling it into my brain that you do not give out personal information. And this was back in the early '90s.

[Dioneo]

As someone who lives in Alabama, I find it interesting that Alabama has been almost continually represented on RI since its inception. Which other educationally, culturally and economically benighted areas of our worlds can make the same claim? Where you at, Mississippi? No, don't seem to see you here. West Virginia? Nope. North Dakota? Kentucky? That one small town in Canada that doesn't have excellent public education and health care?

I am in my late 40's and have a job. My job affords me very flexible hours and high job security, even if it doesn't pay well. I am not much of a researcher in any of the areas of interest represented on this board, but am very interested in high weirdness, deep state politics, and synchronicities generally. I wish I had known BrandonD when I lived in the city in which he resides, as he seems like a really interesting dude.

I do not play any musical instruments, but I do practice martial arts. I have had a few experiences that made me sit up and take notice that things in this reality aren't always what they appear to be. I find it maddening when people can't use appropriate grammar (which makes living in Alabama FUN, lemme tell ya') and find it hard to take posts seriously when the poster can't distinguish between it's and its, even if Emily Dickinson herself also didn't make this distinction. That said, I am learning, and have found certain posters here very astute in every other possible way. If primary sources aren't scrupulously documented, I toss them.

I found my way here via a link on cursor.org, a site I sorely miss.

[pushall]

Just a lurker in the machine who finds the information some times posted interesting. Live in the Midwest, married, retired, used to write bios, operating systems and applications for special machines. At the present moment believe that the way our specie is different from other primates is the fact that we habitually kill members of our specie.

[Wombaticus Rex]

I am not much of a researcher in any of the areas of interest represented on this board, but am very interested in high weirdness, deep state politics, and synchronicities generally.

Well boy howdy, ain't that a sobering slice of feedback.

You've been an asset so far, glad to have you on board.

[Belligerent Savant]

.

Don't think I contributed to this thread -- I'll add in a small bit about myself (reluctantly, only because I prefer such 'intros' in person):

In my late 30s. Always had an interest in many of the topics covered in this forum, though if I had to pinpoint my first foray into this arena, it'd have to be the first time I read the infamous Behold a Pale Horse, by William Cooper, sometime in the mid 90s when I was in my 20s.
Although I've 'graduated' beyond such content over the years of immersing myself into this realm, it certainly helped 'open the door'.

I came across and began reading Jeff Wells' blog for several years as a lurker starting in the mid-2000s or thereabouts, and subsequently this forum, prior to signing on and posting comments...

Some brief personal asides:

- Played lefty guitar in a metal/rock band in my mid-teens; we sucked, but the few times we played live was great. There are moments when a small group of people collaborate together, in concert with one another, almost unconsciously, that is difficult to replicate in other settings.

- Tended bar in various establishments during most of the 90s, starting in my late teens into my 20s, which eventually helped pay my way through college.
Quite an experience for a young lad, meeting some interesting people, most notably JFK Jr and his then-GF Daryl Hannah, often drinking wine and leaving generous tips.
From there I made my way into bartending the club scene in NYC during the mid-late 90s, right around the time that beast Giuliani decided to crack down on the scene. The experience working these spots (and interacting with the myriad personalities/characters) would be the envy of any amateur anthropologist, though I was young and naive at the time, so it wasn't until years later that I better appreciated the memories. (my 'youth' may be slipping away, but the naiveté still lingers)

- Arrested a few times. In one instance (this was approx 12 yrs ago), I was arrested in front of my college (in NYC) while driving in for a final exam after being pulled over for not wearing a seatbelt; rookie cop ran my license, which was apparently flagged with a warrant (I later found out the warrant was for an unpaid fine for excessive noise -- blasting crappy rock music from an even crappier car stereo). Sent to a temporary holding cell and then later transported (tied together in shackles) via a paddy wagon along with some other recently arrested fellow citizens (and in this paddy wagon I vividly recall a fellow arrestee, asking aloud for a light... "Anyone got a light? .. no one? Damn, what I gotta do, put 2 woods together to get a light?") and sent to Central Booking NYC (AKA 'The Tombs'), where I languished for 24hrs before being placed in front of the judge, who slapped me with a relatively minor fine.
One of my other arrests was during one of them protests against the looming invasion of Iraq in 2003, and then another during a police raid on one of the clubs while I was tending bar.

Minor stuff, but certainly events that helped provide perspective that would later serve to be valuable in daily life.

I'm now hitched with offspring -- they tend to be at the forefront of my mind, when not occupied with ruminations on the plight of our world and/or the routines of my 'career' (though I do also enjoy cycling and other outdoorsy stuff when I can find the time).

(edited to remove some unnecessary fluffery)

[elfismiles]

Thank you all for adding to this thread.

I truly would love to meet each of you in person some day.

[coffin_dodger]

Well, Elfi - I sat here for 10 mins trying to find something interesting to say about myself and I just can't.

[Project Willow]

As someone who lives in Alabama, I find it interesting that Alabama has been almost continually represented on RI since its inception. Which other educationally, culturally and economically benighted areas of our worlds can make the same claim? Where you at, Mississippi? No, don't seem to see you here. West Virginia? Nope. North Dakota? Kentucky? That one small town in Canada that doesn't have excellent public education and health care?

Well, between carpet bagging pedo ring northerners and their Nazi space brethren in Huntsville, you're living in an interesting place. I grew up in Birmingham, my family moved from Detroit when I was very young, in part because it's a helluva lot easier to get away with shit down there. One thing I did and do appreciate about the culture is that what we sometimes glibly call woo here is taken quite seriously. If you're interested synchs and weirdness, mine the folk wisdom, it runs deep.

[82_28]

Well, I believe that Birmingham is quite an anomaly (for the south) now that you all mention it. He's been brought up here quite a bit in the past, but I was friends with this guy's son for a time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Douglass

We would drink together and he would tell me about the progress of his dad's book. It took him a long time to write. I was always "Birmingham"? "Seriously"? I still need to read it. I've glanced over the early manuscripts (circa 2000).

[BrandonD]

In my late 30s. Always had an interest in many of the topics covered in this forum, though if I had to pinpoint my first foray into this arena, it'd have to be the first time I read the infamous Behold a Pale Horse, by William Cooper, sometime in the mid 90s when I was in my 20s.

I'm very glad you included this piece of info, after hearing this I'd love to hear about everyone else's first introduction to the world of occult, conspiracy, high strangeness or whatever.

My first dive into strange subjects was either through Edgar Cayce or a particular UFO book, I can't remember which came first (this was also in the mid 90s when I was in my 20s).

I lived in Tacoma Washington at the time, two friends and I had moved there with the ridiculous intention of becoming famous painters (our ingenious scheme was that the three of us would all paint under the same pseudonym). I had no other friends there and was not particularly outgoing, and fell into a depression. I would spend much of my time at the Tacoma public library, which was very large and reminded me of the library in the beginning of Ghostbusters. While there, I would wander around and read random stuff, and two books that really caught my attention were "Edgar Cayce: The Sleeping Prophet" and "The Andreasson Affair" (an old UFO abduction book from the 80s). Both of these books fascinated me, and I read them multiple times. Those books sort of opened the floodgates to everything else.

[Project Willow]

Well, I believe that Birmingham is quite an anomaly (for the south) now that you all mention it. He's been brought up here quite a bit in the past, but I was friends with this guy's son for a time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Douglass

We would drink together and he would tell me about the progress of his dad's book. It took him a long time to write. I was always "Birmingham"? "Seriously"? I still need to read it. I've glanced over the early manuscripts (circa 2000).

What the heck? You used to hang out with his son? He is a friend of a friend who met him in conjunction with his protest activities here. Indeed, why Birmingham? I can only imagine some family connection.

The book is a must read. The introduction alone will change your perception of how power operates in this country.

[82_28]

You might have even known or do know him, Willow. When I would meet up with him at the bar this was far before my "RI days". It was also in the days in which I thought I would be shot dead for writing subversive shit just by sitting at my window writing. I think it was the violent assholes who would "interrupt" our peace rallies and such got to my head a bit. The amount of anger was amazing. So back then I figured "they'd" found me, no matter where I was. Not schizophrenically, but I believed I was being followed and monitored. Who knows, could be. I'm still here as far as I know. But back then when I talked to a guy at the bar who brought up shit I was interestied in, it made me nervous.

I ran into him last year somewhere and he seemed a little frazzled and guarded. Anyhow, yeah I would have nightly discussions with this guy at the bar. I will have to read his dad's book. Always meant to.

[Nordic]

Well, I believe that Birmingham is quite an anomaly (for the south) now that you all mention it. He's been brought up here quite a bit in the past, but I was friends with this guy's son for a time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_W._Douglass

We would drink together and he would tell me about the progress of his dad's book. It took him a long time to write. I was always "Birmingham"? "Seriously"? I still need to read it. I've glanced over the early manuscripts (circa 2000).

What the heck? You used to hang out with his son? He is a friend of a friend who met him in conjunction with his protest activities here. Indeed, why Birmingham? I can only imagine some family connection.

The book is a must read. The introduction alone will change your perception of how power operates in this country.

The book you're speaking of is "JFK and the Unspeakable"?

[82_28]

Yes. Both Willow and I were referring to "the unthinkable". Small world so to speak and yet not so much.

Personally, I tend to find people like this because I talk to everybody. Actually I wind up asking a lot of questions and making small chat. Such as "what are you reading"? That's how I met Jim's son. Just the simple question of "what are you reading?". Then getting the low down that it was his dad and perpetually curious every time I saw him. I wondered if he thought I was some kind of an "agent" or something because I would pry a bit and was super into Stone's JFK at this point in life.

Whatever. I wasn't and am not an "agent". I was always worried that he thought I was doing an investigation. In a sense, I was. But just being curious.