Where Am I?

It's a real busy year, what with my honours project as well as 3 papers in one semester, plus I've got a new website project I want to start working on. So I wont be updating here too much, but will be continously updating my twitter, which has kinda become my mini blog for now.

Wondering where I'm at? Am right HERE

Guitar Tree Revamp

I am starting out a new project of revamping all my old artwork. I love the old stuff and will not discard them ever, since they were what made me realize I can actually draw pretty good lol. But I wanna patch them up, make them look better. First in line was Guitar Tree, which I drew about a year ago. The first image is the original piece, and the second is the revamped one.





I dunno how it is with other people, but when I listen to music, like really really really good music, it kinda sends me into a trance. Whatever I am doing I will stop, and I will close my eyes and just listen. I would see images, like mountains or streams, or even colors depending on the tone and lyrics of the music/song. That's why I decided to add lots of color to this piece, since it conveys my feelings towards music.

Zombie!

Hack/Slash

Spent the better part of my day today drawing out a poster of one my fav comics: Hack/Slash. I really wanted a poster of the comic to stick to my room's wall and decided to create my own one lol.

Click on images for larger to see more detail and stuff.

Here's the 10 minute-ish sketch that I scanned into photoshop




Here's my take on Cassie Hack




Here's my take on Vlad




And here's the final poster




Am still pretty bad at drawing the background ._. Really need to improve on that. But am really happy and proud with the end product =D

Can't wait to print it and hang it up yay!

Darth Vader

Oh God xD I am literally choking from laughter xD

BRILLIANT! ahahaha

Internet Vigilantism

A vigilante, as defined by Wiktionary is “[o]ne who takes the law into one's own hands”. Internet Vigilantism is a very recent phenomenon that came into existence as a result of the formation of the web community with the birth of the internet and the World Wide Web.

Though the word vigilante has good intention tied with it, the Internet Vigilantism phenomenon is somewhat disturbing, due to many cases of it being similar as to the harassment of a lynch mob. The most notable method of Internet Vigilantism is public shaming, where the violator’s crime is publicized widely across the web, almost always followed by personal information of the perpetrator such as name, photos and even email and home address. Social networking tools as well as forums are utilized, thus leading to the public shaming spreading faster than an epidemic across the world.

Dog Poop Girl

One of the most widely publicized and talked about example of public shaming tied to Internet Vigilantism and followed by harassment of a lynch mob is South Korea’s “Dog Poop Girl”. In 2005, a commuter in Seoul took a photograph of a fellow commuter who refused (using colorful language) to clean up her dog’s defacement on the floor of a subway car. The photo showed the dog owner, a Korean woman, seated in the subway car with her dog in her lap; it’s defacement on the floor in front of her. Fellow passengers surrounding her look down upon the sight with disgust plainly visible on their faces. The commuter who took the photograph posted it on a popular Korean website, voicing his anger and disgust.

Within hours, Internet Vigilantes quickly sprang into action, labeling her as “Dog Poop Girl” (it being the less colorful version of the woman’s new title) and began spreading the photo across the web. Within days, as further punishment for her violation, she was identified and much of her personal information was exposed on the internet, as well as more pictures of her. Parodies of the incident were even made. The story reached mainstream media, and the public humiliation and harassment, even against her own family, lead the woman to quit her university and issue a public apology online.

Breaking the norm

It is interesting to note that the Dog Poop Girl case stemmed due to not following the norm, rather than breaking the law. The lady was expected to clean up after her dog. Instead, she refused and in a very offensive manner. Usually, this would follow with norm enforcement such as an angry scowl or someone telling off the lady. Dog Poop Girl’s norm enforcement was rather extreme, as she was tracked down by a cyber-posse, who took matters into their own hands and publicly humiliated her. She is forever branded as Dog Poop Girl.

A similar example is of 16-year-old New Yorker Sasha Gomez. She decided to steal a Sidekick II cell phone she found in the back of a cab rather than turning it in. Gomez was exposed and publicly humiliated by Evan Guttmann (friend of the cell phone owner), who tracked her down by means of the web. Another case is of Jesse McPherson tracking the person who stole his laptop, television and Xbox down after posting an obtained picture of the thief to his blog. The blog entry was then posted on Digg.com, a popular social news website, resulting in an angry mob of internet users tracking the thief’s name, home address and even high school. The violator was constantly harassed, until he confessed his crime and returned the stolen goods.

Patrick Pogan

Internet Vigilantism, in this case, was used to expose the wrong doing of public law enforcer. Critical Mass is a bicycling event held on a monthly basis in cities all over the world. It is perceived as a political protest activity, while participants claim it’s more of a gathering of people and a celebration. Critical Mass events can legally occur with no advance notification of local police, which leads to traffic problems and hence disgruntled road commuters.

During a Critical Mass rally in the streets of New York in July, 2008, Patrick Pogan, an NYPD rookie, intercepted Christopher Long, a participant in the rally, to the ground. Pogan filed a criminal complaint, outlining that Long:

• was weaving in and out of traffic, disturbing normal flow of the cars
• purposely veered into him, knocking him down and injuring him
• resisted arrest, kicking and screaming while doing so.

Long was charged with attempted assault, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct. However, within days, a video surfaces on YouTube of the incident in question that completely contradicts Pogan’s report.

The video clearly showed that:

• there was no car traffic on the road.
• Long in fact attempted to veer away from the officer, while Pogan clearly ran into the cyclist, body-slamming him to the ground, while the officer remained on his feet.

All charges against Long were dropped, and Pogan was stripped of his gun and badge and given a desk job instead. Seven months later, the police department suspended him, and he now faces criminal charges including filing a false instrument and misdemeanor charges of third-degree assault.

More to come

I only demonstrated a few cases of Internet Vigilantism in this article, however it is clear to me that this is a phenomenon that will grow more in scope as the internet and web continues growing and become more tied to our lives. It is somewhat worrying though, due to the public shaming being worldwide rather than just in the local community. Once branded or tainted on the web, humiliation and public scorn is hard to forget due to it always existing on the web, easily retrieved by Google. The Korean lady will always be known as Dog Poop Girl, Gomez always remembered for stealing a cell phone and Pogan will always be known for his criminal actions as a police officer. Internet Vigilantes exist in the cyber world, where laws and limitations of the normal world are not applicable and anything is possible.

Hamilton Night Glow 09

Quoted from Wikipedia:

Balloons over Waikato is an annual hot air ballooning festival held in Hamilton, New Zealand. It is held over five days during autumn and attracts both local and overseas balloonists. The Festival is held primarily at Innes Common, at Hamilton Lake, which gets an estimated 100,000 visitors during the festival.

Events in the festival include sunrise and sunset launches, a balloon basket parade, lighting of balloons in the "Night Glow" and a morning "Dip in the Lake" competition where balloonists must attempt to secure a key placed on the lakebed.

This year's Night Glow was held on Uni grounds, a mere 2 mins walk from my place. The main street was closed to allow pedestranian traffic to easily get to the field, which was full of other events like rides, a music show and lots of food. I found a stand selling those mini cinammon donuts that are freshly prepared, bought a bag of 14 and ate them all xD I love those mini donuts so much, but unfortunatly they are not available everywhere (why is it that everything I love is hard to find ._.) I decided to skip the rides, as I was sufferening from a small headache, and headed towards the most densly populated part of the field with a friend. A band was playing, and right next to them the balloons were slowly being inflated. Here are photos before the Night Glow show began:











As the balloons were inflating, the music continued blaring on the speakers around the field. Suddenly the music stopped, and all the flood lights were switched off. Kids began to sing (Happy Birthday to you) since it's the 10 year aniversary of the night glow. As the kids came to the end of the song, the made a huffing and puffing sound, like they were blowing out candles. Suddenly the night a-glow with several gas fire stands located around all the balloons. Many people in the crowd gasped in fright, including me as I was pretty close to one of these fire stands xD Then music started and all the balloons as well as the fire stands began to glow in time with the music. It was so so so pretty!










And, ofcourse, what's an outdoor night show without some awesome fireworks =P