for what it's worth

and i knew there was something I was forgetting to post last night...

Midnight has apparently returned to the blogging fold, with a post speculating on the relative merits of his sabbatical.

dangerous bedfellows

Neurocam romance and flirtation seems to be the topic of the day. (Warning: Shem's site seems to be infected with a nasty little MIDI virus. Please, Shem, make it go away.)

While CP offers us a round-up of known Neurocam couplings (which is, ahem, fleshed out in the comments section), Shem waxes philosophical on the subject. I won't rehash too much of his musings; my interest lies primarily in his parting shot:

Has there been an assumed trust developing amongst the Operatives - a by-product of our digital familiarity. An invitation to a Neurocam gathering no longer generates the suspicion, the unsurety, the gastrointestinal butterfly's that once lurked as a result of that famous piece of Tarantino inspired footage many of us were first exposed to.

Are you too comfortable?

Are you too trusting?

Are you too complacent?

Are you too revealing?

In light of the heritage behind the name of our newest executive, Ms Gertrude Zelle; and the recently revealed Fischer-Hastings Affair (I'd link to the exact post, but Blogger's archives, like everything else about the service, appear to be currently fux0rd), I can only wonder what the Cam has up its sleeve for us operatives. When do they start playing us against each other? (Or have they already begun?) Will they take advantage of publicly revealed friendships and relationships amongst us, and attempt to exploit those relationships? Will they succeed? How many layers of deception would they have to employ to trick an operative into lying to or betraying an ally? Or would you willingly go along with certain lies of omission (or outright lies) in order to further the "experience"? Would you be more willing to "play" a friend you only know online? It is, after all, so much easier to type a lie than to say it.

What does Neurocam mean to you?

nkotb

The operatives list has been long due for an update. New additions: Simon Blackmoore in New England (w00t!); Reanimator and Wintermute in Melbourne; Yantra in the UK; Bob the Mediocre in Buffalo, with an interesting letter from MK (perhaps one of his last? sniff) regarding the relative nature of truth; Gigabane in Newfoundland, who's apparently been getting documents from MK where others have been getting stonewalled, and whose name totally makes me think of the techno-pagan direction they were once going with Willow before Joss fucked her character all up(/buffynerd); Chris Titan who claims to be in the Sudan but who also seems to tread a fine line between fact and his own personal fiction, and who mixes Perplex City posts in with Cam posts, making for quite a stew of confusion; and one of my new favorite reads, Another Operative, in London. AO's flickr name, interestingly, is thesneakerpimp. Sound familiar?

Of course, AO's flickr nick may be a coincidence. It may be a clue. Or AO may be playing with a little bit of unclaimed Cam mythology, in which case he might be getting himself into something a bit bigger than he realizes. I never published this, from an email exchange with Robin, but Rob's previously said that all of our correspondence could be considered on-the-record. So (text in blue was originally written by me; by Robin in red):

You  wrote: "The Sneaker Pimp is a Neurocam Operative. If he is the person I think he is, then he knows a lot about Neurocam's current operations." Who do you think he is, and why?

In NZ I met a guy called Peter Casey who I suspect was one of the architects of Neurocam. He once used the alias 'Sneaker Pimp' in an email to a friend of mine. I happen to know that there is a Neurocam 'double agent' called The Sneaker Pimp and wonder if he is in fact Mr Casey.

Robin was supposed to be tracking down Casey's email address for me, through a friend. That was back at the beginning of March, though, and I've heard nothing re Casey since -- from Robin or anyone else.

I do have a bit more from Robin on this Casey guy, but I'm not sure -- what with all the other Cam activity going on right now -- if it's a fruitful tangent.

Back to the site updates.

Ice's blog has been taken down -- I can't remember if that's old news.

And last, I've created a new section called metacam, for blogs that play entirely fast and loose with the Cam mythology but that nevertheless have become part of the water cooler chatter.

I think we're having a thunderstorm. I'm off to investigate.

more, more, more

Two new operative blogs I've been meaning to post: Chesire Cat (UK), and, beefing up the Buffalo contingent, Nicholas Urfe.

And as other have noted, Robin seems to be feeling blue.

weekend update

Much like the lovely Ms. Paige, this webmistress has decided it's time for some spring cleaning.

Of the purely administrative kind.

Call it librarian porn, but the Operatives list needed some discipline. I've deleted most of the blogs that haven't been updated in more than a month, though I'll continue to check on them periodically. Any blog that shows signs of life will be restored to the list. I've also added even more new operatives: another Buffalo, NY blogger Roger That (friends with Toby?); Melbourne (bastard!) op Exodus; and not-so-new operative Conchis, who I suspect may be living la vida Solar. Cam operations in London circa September 04? The Circle di Luce? Hmmmm. (Softly hums the old SS ditty "one of these kids is doing his own thing"...) Conchis recently returned from a prolonged and seemingly unintentional blogging hiatus; it should be interesting to see what he comes up with next.

In other news, Hely updates with the following hash: 2346238487632 1209381203812830912HFK777TRE. Does anybody else wonder if we're being toyed with here? That maybe these "coded" messages of late are pure gibberish?

Last, Q makes a slight modification to his most recent update, adding a link from the "Beware the blue hat" text to fortitudegame.com. Fortitude is a Jason Maling project that will launch its first Australian match on April 9 in Melbourne (natch). The first training day was -- coincidentally or not -- March 20, the same day as the Bolte Bridge assignment. [note to self: do not draft posts and try to answer emails at the same time...]

covered in lint and time for a cigarette

Just added three operative blogs to the sidebar:

Gothic, who's not new -- I just managed to overlook him until recently. Doesn't post much besides his photography, but his work is beautiful and worth the visit. I only wish he'd post more often (hint, hint!).

And two brand-spanking new blogs: tobyesterhase and urchin x, whose site launches with a gorgeous little quote from John Berger. Toby's in Buffalo, NY; urchin doesn't give a location, but given the recent post title "end of summer" I'm guessing somewhere on the other side of this wobbling globe.

Boy is out of town until tomorrow and I'm taking perverse pleasure in blasting my music while I blog at 5 a.m. Quiet music just isn't the same, especially those power chords. I know you know what I mean.

you don't send me flowers anymore

Well. Where do we go from here?

For various reasons (possibly all of them engineered by Neurocam), the blogging operatives -- myself included -- have gone from babble to mumble to mute. Why? There seems to be this notion circulating that Neurocam operatives who operate under a strict policy of non-disclosure enjoy a "different" (implication: better) Cam experience.

Is this true? I don't know. Neurocam has gone on the record as preferring discretion from its operatives, and has progressively clarified its definition of "discretion" as leaks occur. I agree with others who have mused that these most recent assignments have been a test of the gaskets; a culling game. But was this strategy also intended to stifle all other manner of disclosure about the Cam?

Based on past conversation with Bridget Fischer, my guess is no. So I asked her. This is what she says:

I hereby inform you that your supposition that Neurocam does
not intend to fully suppress all discussion on operational matters is
correct.

Do operatives who maintain a verbal and written “silence” regarding their
Neurocam activities enjoy a different Neurocam experience?  They certainly
do. Does “different”, however, equal “better”?  Not necessarily.

I feel that Neurocam has been quite consistent in informing operatives as
to when and how operational matters may be discussed.  The varying secrecy
clauses contained within assignment briefs are written in a concise and
clear manner, but, it should be noted, refer only to the discussion of
that particular assignment.  Discussion on other matters is permitted and
encouraged, except in the instance where Neurocam has clearly expressed a
desire to the contrary.

Whilst on the matter of assignment secrecy, however, I would like to make
a point – Those operatives who claim to enjoy the Neurocam experience, but
then publish materials which the organization has requested be kept
confidential, only ruin the experience for other operatives and
themselves.

Despite some speculation to the contrary, Neurocam’s operations are, due
to necessity, increasing in complexity.  Whilst there is little harm in
the “leaks” which have occurred thus far, similar displays of indiscretion
could, during future assignments, have catastrophic repercussions.

I must stress, once again, that I refer only to materials which Neurocam
has expressly delineated as “classified”.

So there you have it. Next up: What the hell is Traverse? Still waiting for an answer to that one.

oh yeah

And another new operative blog: Harlen M Quint. Welcome, yo.

my exciting friday night

involves not going outside. Zero degrees, windchill. That's why the pizza delivery boy exists.

Ahoo. Neurocam has extended its tentacles to Pennsylvania, Montreal, and Bedfordshire UK.

And the short-lived Institute of Whatever It Was is now the Centre for Magnanimity.

And Neurocam seems to have a new(?) player in Lisa Andrews, who, given her Sydney  connections, seems quite logically to be the Area Coordinator of whom Sydney-based operative Shemyaza speaks.

Oh, and Elmo: I thought you were kidding with the Ringling crack. That Cam, man. Nothing if not a sense of humor...

the sign CLEARLY says:

Do not feed the trolls.

But yet again I find myself dangling over the same cage, slinging slop at the same damn beast. Why? I don't know. Probably because so many nice people have stood up for me, and I feel the need to both publicly repay that kindness and to draw a line in the sand that will hopefully give us respite (however fleeting -- there's always another troll under the next bridge) from the emotional and intellectual nuisance of immature, passive-aggressive personal attacks.

To be clear, for those who sling stones but call them cupcakes, this is a personal attack:

Well lets just say this, Lady J has way too much time on her hands. Lets ask ourselves this, does she work? Does she have any kind of love life? Does she have a life outside of work and Neurocam? Of course I'm assuming she does and this is not a personal attack on her at all.

I don't care if you want to speculate about my level of involvement with Neurocam. But don't try to pass off crap like the above as "opinion," and get all righteous about protecting it. There's a word for people who do that, darling.