online journal-like a private journal, but set up for everyone to see on the world wide web. Most online journals, especially the better ones, have an element of e-zine to them, though they are still usually intensely personal like a private journal. Many in the offline world cannot comprehend why anyone would keep an online journal.
webring-a series of web sites connected in a circular formation. Most webrings are connected by the URL-translating services of webring.org.
In late July, 1997, I invented an eight year old named Bobby Wall, nicekid@rocketmail.com. Bobby claimed to be fearful of the prospect of being molested by pedophiles and so created a web page to bring wanted child molestors to justice. He joined the Faces of Fear webring, but was quickly thrown out when a Faces of Fear morals squad member noted links to "adult content." Susan Duncan, the Faces of Fear ringmaster, subsequently sent Bobby an email in which she said she suspected he was none other than the infamous Gus Mueller (me).
Next Bobby started keeping an online journal in which he detailed his life in a suburban family of never-spare-the-rod Christians. He submitted his journal for entry into the Open Pages online journal webring. What followed was the following email thread in the diary-l mailing list (a mailing list of fellow online journal keepers). If you notice your comments here and wish to be given credit, send me email.
http://www.angelfire.com/va/nicekid/diary.html
And tell me if this kid could possibly be for real? Or 8 years old, for that matter? Maybe I just have no faith in the youth of the future, but it looks like just a really bad attempt at emulation.
Let me know if y'all don't mind me coming to you with a few of the "huh? >scratch head<" applicants. I'm sure you can imagine there are quite a few.
I stumbled upon this Journal today by following a link from Gus' Musings. I must admit I scratched my head too. Personally I don't think this is for real.
It doesn't seem quite right.
There is such a webring. A woman whose name is Susan Duncan runs it. This journal is fake and I think I know who put it up too. Or at least had a hand in it. ;) I have an eight year old and they don't sound anything like that. Or at least they don't in my neck of the woods.
My thoughts exactly... these are not the words nor style of an 8-year old. I'm guessing it's some pervert trying to get some poor kids to write him... and so on and so forth. It has no place, IMHO, in OP.
i smell a rat.
i don't think it's real, kat. i have plenty of cousins, realtives, that are 7-8 year old range, and not one of them is like this.
i would be very wary. sounds like this could blow up.
i just looked at the homepage...i dunno.
it's kinda...odd. very ooky, i felt...weird just lookin at it.
and that picture is just too surreal for me.
another two cents.
Maybe it's a coincidence.
Ok, I'm new to all this stuff. I read it, and there is no way that is a
real 8 year old. The picture is fake, no? And to speak in a way that has
so much violence in it, that really is not the way any of the eight year
olds I know write. They might talk it, but they'd be scared to write it,
(i.e. the "cut up into little pieces" thing on the home page).
Absolutely bizarre.
I have to agree with the majority. The kid's homepage gave me the creeps. I truly think its a bunch of bullshit. slightly freeked me out!!
I will admit, however, that I laughed at this link on his web page:
>Ceej's Battered Black Book - this lady needs to find God again!
that was funny.
>Generic Joe - this guy will be in Hell when he dies cause of he can't decide whether >to marry a man or a woman! That's gross! He also eats too much food.
that was funny too. like someone out there thinks that they need to offend
as many people as possible or something.
whoever they are they have WAY too much time on their hands.
I have to say this is definatly not for real. There is no way that an 8 yr old is doing all of this . It is too forced , like a twisted adult is trying too hard to sound like a kid. Have to give this one a thumbs down.
no need for anyone to feel icked out or anything.
take a closer look at the photo people. it's just Mister Gus taking the piss.
hehehe.
Kid has multiple references to spankings
Gus once mused that spankings were a hot search engine query
Kid refers to "peepees" in preadolescent psychosexual pseudo-drama
Gus began a few of his entries with short 'kid stories' in the same style
Kid wrote entry in Elly's guestbook claiming to be in comet.net domain
(thus bringing attention to effects on ban of domain)
Gus fascinated by Elly, would have done that
(Note that entries have since been deleted)
(Also note that someone tried naughty PLAINTEXT thing. toast strips that tag.)
Anyway. I wouldn't worry about the guy, but it's fiction.
(Gus, you child molester)
damn.
who is gus??
boy, I feel stupid now.
i guess i have a new journal to read now.
I am new to OP but have been reading several journals a very long time
before I decided to put one on line. I love the satire here myself. It
only took reading the first few lines for me to know who it was and who
it was directed at. I don't think anyone in Open Pages should take any
of it personally. This is a very intelligent individual with a real bone
to pick and if there were a vote of the memebers (although I am very new
I know) I would say add him. It will only get funnier and I can say with
certainty that it will not blow up in our faces.
Bobby darling, I would be proud to call you son!
First off, this is a fake. Young boys who would possess the writing capability to create such a Web site would not use a light ring background or refer to a woman's sexual organs as her pee pee. If he discovered his brothers porno collection he would have called it a porno collection, or again, used more graphical terms than pee pee. After all, if he had figured out how to design a Web page, he would have figured out how to visit "weird sites." At least we added 48 hits to his site!
I think you have someone doing a really bad rendition of "The Secret Life of Adrian Mole - Aged 13 3/4."
I found the journal to be quite funny (what I read of it), while obviously not that of an 8 year old. I didn't even entertain the thought for a second, but that's because I'm a smarmy git.
Oh, and that photo was one of the trippiest things I've seen in ages :) Loved it.
Well, back to sleep.
--
Generic Joe
"It's probably some pervert trying to get kids to write to him."
check out musings of the gus, baby: http://atlas.comet.net/~gus/musings
i wanna have his babies.
dear me
naughty gus
chuckle
my eventual confession
THAT attempt at an alter-ego has been foiled completely, but not without a good many laughs both here and in faces of fear. next thing to be wary of: a woman of the heart in her mid-thirties with a high-bandwidth pastel page, lots of MIDI, and concern for the rights of unborn chinese food. too bad tripod/geocities/angelfire give away so little hard drive space, she's gonna need it!
--gus, age 29, fancier of tussin, libras, geminis & italian cancers
http://atlas.comet.net/~gus/musings/kill.shtml
(sorry about the delay, details of the NYC trip are imminent)
Don't make me disappear like this boy? That nicekid prank was some of the funniest shit I've seen on the web. I must clap at you, yes, I clap. I can't wait for the lady of the heart prank, MIDI is pure evil. It's like sucking the sould out of music. I'm sure it's painful for the original artists to hear their songs translated into MIDI.... even more painful than a Muzac version.