Keeping up with current events...
Dec. 19th, 2003 07:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
alexpgpIf I hadn't dropped in on an old favorite (The Register) I probably would have completely missed the news that JenniCam is going offline as of the end of this year. Quoting The Register:
I don't recall who it was, but some Paradigm of Virtue™ decided to get on his hind feet in my presence one day and inveigh against JenniCam as though it were some kind of mortal blow to all that is good and worth preserving about humanity. A two-minute session visiting the JenniCam site proved to me, at least, that the speaker was a blowhard suffering from an acute case of "rectocranial inversion."
After my visit, the whole webcam-put-your-life-on-the-web thing stuck in my head. I was pretty sure one had to be temperamentally suited to put one's life on display for the world to watch, the way Jennifer Rigley did, and that I did not fit the bill. However, the concept was intriguing (maybe it's the ham - as in actor - in me, though others might label it simple exhibitionism). In any event, a few months later, I stumbled across a reference to LiveJournal in a newspaper story, and decided to surf on over, mostly because I saw LiveJournal as a kind of variation of a theme of the JenniCam.
Once here, I weighed the pros and cons of joining, and I distinctly remember how the idea behind JenniCam relentlessly kept bobbing up and down in my head like a bone in a stew. My consciousness regarding putting a piece of myself online had definitely been raised. Eventually I decided to jump in here, even though frankly I had reservations about the viability of making one's journal available for pretty much everyone in the world to see.
These reservations were, in fact reflected in the first month or so after signing up, during which time I posted sporadically, more often than not trying to post only text "worthy" of being read by others, until it became clear to me that this was not a showcase for building a fan club of some kind, but a place to keep one's own journal, albeit one that could be read by others. Further, it was a place one could keep up with the journals of interesting "friends," thereby maintaining a correspondence that was, at the same time, not a correspondence (thereby eliminating the need to keep "the ball," as it were, in play, as would be the case between people exchanging letters).
So in the end, it turns out I am here - in part - thanks to Jennifer Rigley and her wild idea of 1996. Good luck to her in the future.
* * * I've played with the idea of simply saying "no" to translation jobs for the rest of the year. (Yes, that surely does sound grand, until you look at the calendar.)
Unfortunately, that's not going to be very easy. Right now, I have a shortie due Monday, and 10,000 words due January 5.
And a lot of paper chase to get done in short order. I'm going to have to get medieval about jobs for the "rest of the year."
Which reminds me... it'll soon be time to review my "final grade" this past year for my resolutions, but not tonight.
Cheers...
Since 1986 web voyeurs have enjoyed no-holds-barred 24/7 coverage of Jenni going about her daily business - from watching TV to conducting her ablutions, and it's the latter which has apparently forced the shutdown.The article then goes on to introduce one of those quirky little twists that endear the Register's site to me: a poetry contest to mark the passing of JenniCam. The results are in, and of all the noteworthy submissions published, I suppse my favorite is this one, which if memory serves garnered only an honorable mention:
[...T]he closure has been forced by PayPal because "the frontal nudity on her Web site violates the company's acceptable use policy".
Oh dear. JenniCam is hardly web porn, it must be said. Here's how Jenni's herself puts it: "I keep JenniCam alive not because I want or need to be watched, but because I simply don't mind being watched. What you'll see is my life, exactly as it would be whether or not there were cameras watching. From minute to minute, it can be tough to see what it's about. The site has existed now for about seven years. As a chronicle, a long-term experiment, the concept becomes clearer."
An applet which through Java was brewedThe only reason I mention JenniCam at all is because it was Ms. Rigley's "experiment" that, indirectly, caused me to join LiveJournal.
Let us watch Jenni prance in the nude
For seven years long,
And unless I'm quite wrong
You expected this line to be lewd.
I don't recall who it was, but some Paradigm of Virtue™ decided to get on his hind feet in my presence one day and inveigh against JenniCam as though it were some kind of mortal blow to all that is good and worth preserving about humanity. A two-minute session visiting the JenniCam site proved to me, at least, that the speaker was a blowhard suffering from an acute case of "rectocranial inversion."
After my visit, the whole webcam-put-your-life-on-the-web thing stuck in my head. I was pretty sure one had to be temperamentally suited to put one's life on display for the world to watch, the way Jennifer Rigley did, and that I did not fit the bill. However, the concept was intriguing (maybe it's the ham - as in actor - in me, though others might label it simple exhibitionism). In any event, a few months later, I stumbled across a reference to LiveJournal in a newspaper story, and decided to surf on over, mostly because I saw LiveJournal as a kind of variation of a theme of the JenniCam.
Once here, I weighed the pros and cons of joining, and I distinctly remember how the idea behind JenniCam relentlessly kept bobbing up and down in my head like a bone in a stew. My consciousness regarding putting a piece of myself online had definitely been raised. Eventually I decided to jump in here, even though frankly I had reservations about the viability of making one's journal available for pretty much everyone in the world to see.
These reservations were, in fact reflected in the first month or so after signing up, during which time I posted sporadically, more often than not trying to post only text "worthy" of being read by others, until it became clear to me that this was not a showcase for building a fan club of some kind, but a place to keep one's own journal, albeit one that could be read by others. Further, it was a place one could keep up with the journals of interesting "friends," thereby maintaining a correspondence that was, at the same time, not a correspondence (thereby eliminating the need to keep "the ball," as it were, in play, as would be the case between people exchanging letters).
So in the end, it turns out I am here - in part - thanks to Jennifer Rigley and her wild idea of 1996. Good luck to her in the future.
Unfortunately, that's not going to be very easy. Right now, I have a shortie due Monday, and 10,000 words due January 5.
And a lot of paper chase to get done in short order. I'm going to have to get medieval about jobs for the "rest of the year."
Which reminds me... it'll soon be time to review my "final grade" this past year for my resolutions, but not tonight.
Cheers...
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2003-12-19 07:24 pm (UTC)always interests me to hear someone's variation on the universal theme (well, universal in the LJ universe) of why they'd want to expose some part of themselves to whomever happens to stumble upon this site.
the struggle with deciding what one wants his/her journal to be often never ends. in my case i'll frequently decide it's a completely personal expression, then days later, i find myself wishing for comments -- looking to be more of an exhibitionist or whatever.
LJ as a social experiment is constantly fascinating.
no subject
Date: 2003-12-19 07:56 pm (UTC)