Daniel

It is kind of difficult to say. I will admit, for humanity to continue to evolve, we need to realistically address the fact that we fully have the capability to destroy ourselves. Unlike previous ages where the best we could do was wage bloody wars, we now can literally destroy every human alive if someone decided to do it.

You guys a depressing. I'm not sure how the majority of you are so much more pessimistic than I am, but it is weird. And depressing. But it is interesting to see who really lacks faith in their fellow human beings.

Yes, and in fact it seems all of them are still giving me the same error: "The error returned was: Sorry, but you do not have permission to use this feature. If you are not logged in, you may do so using the form below if available."

This has only been the norm for a few generations. I'd say life from the year 1900 and beyond has significantly improved over life 1900 and before. However, with that said, the 20th century yielded the greatest number of man caused deaths through improved effectivness in war weapons, genocide, etc. It is plain and simple to me to see that life has never been better for humanity, at least in the first world countries. We have toys and comforts never known to man in any time previous to now. We have medical advances, technological advances and general knowledges that exponentially surpass mankind even as early as 100 years ago, let alone thousands of years ago. With that said, I think it is important to note a few potential problems that could be catastrophic. 1) Our technology has made us increasingly isolated from one another (at least in the first world countries), which hardens our opinions in regards to differences, and makes it easier for us to hate each other. This reduces over all empathy, which is not good. 2) With easier access and justification of hate, we also have the realistic potential to destroy ourselves. As Phee mentioned, everyone always thinks the end is near. A thousand years ago religious zealots thought the end times were dawning and four horseman would appear, etc. The difference between then and now is that we actually CAN destroy ourselves. We need no beasts, angels or horseman to bring about the Apocalypse. I do not want to suggest that I think we are doomed, but the potential is absolutely there, and the political climate of the world could evolve into another Cold War type of situation that could get nasty. Or worse, an all out World War III situation centered on the Middle East that could be catastrophic. Or something even beyond imagination, who knows? I think if these points are ironed out, mankind could in the next 1000 years reach an enlightened age that is vastly beyond even our most wild and vivid imaginations. When I think of the rate of progress we are achieving, and think about the difference between man now and man 1000 years ago, it almost hurts my brain to think about all that could happen by the year 3007. But, we desperately need wisdom to come along with our knowledge and progress. Klaatu, barada, nikto.

Not when I break out my Shaolin Iron Buddha's Palm Fist Technique it doesn't.

I just threaten to kick their ass. That usually takes care of the problem.

Seems I am still unable to delete some of the pictures. I'll try again later.

What you're proposing might qualify as a goth club!

Alessandro Bosetti, "Her Name"

Someone on my Livejournal friends list posted this the other day. I am not sure what it is from, but it sums it up for me nicely: It doesn't interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare dream of meeting your heart's longing. It doesn't interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive. It doesn't interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain. I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it or fix it. I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human. It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself. if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy. I want to know if you can see beauty, even when it's not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence. I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, "YES!" It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have, I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children. It doesn't interest me who you know and how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back. It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away. I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in empty moments. Ultimately, I'm interested in being inspired. Inspire me, show me a new world outside of my own.

Well, I have never looked particularly "freaky", having no love for the face makeup or big hair. I had super long hair for years and have always worn solid black. Since living in Detroit (since 2000), I have never had problems. Well, some work related obstacles with the long hair (corporate-ville), but those were minor. The black has never been a serious problem, particularly with my current employer, where I technically work in the big music business. In Indiana, I dealt with a lot of weird prejudice, but not anything overtly provocative. The biggest thing I dealt with there, that I do not deal with nearly as much here, is walking down the street or in a grocery store and getting proselytized by Christians wielding Chick Tracts. Which I always welcomed, being Serious Atheist that I am. I have only dealt with two such scenarios since living here, but it was a weekly occurrence in Indiana. I have some rather grand and hilarious stories I can spin from those days. Ahh, the memories. Anyway, from my observations, Detroit in general seems much much more jaded to all that shit. I have a Cthulhu Fish (like a Jesus fish, but it says Cthulhu, and has wings and tentacles) on my car (as well as a black "support ribbon" that says "Beware of the zombie apocalypse). I don't even get comments about it. In Indiana, my car would have been flat out vandalized.

murder by death, "in bocca al lupo"

I wouldn't discourage links in hard to find, "hidden" places, as they still contribute to Page Rank on Google. Particularly for topic relevant sites (goth resource pages, bands, radio stations, etc). They may not yield many direct hits to this site, but they will boost your Google Page Rank, which will yield direct hits. Really, you should be pushing people to post links to your site on every page they possibly can. If you want to use Myspace to your advantage, make an "official" DGN account, and use it to post bulletin updates, changes, and so forth, with direct links back here. And then ad the shit out of people from the Detroit area. My experiences with advertising on Myspace have shown that you get almost all traffic from links in Bulletins, but simply not many on any part of the profile. However, I suspect if you had a lot of people posting links on their profiles, you may get a trickle of hits as a result.