milliondollarbabe.com  :-)

A Lesson in the Ridiculous and the Sublime

My original posting in Forums, in response to classmate's website

     Hi Alejandro and family! I visited your website and 'met' all of you! I really like the Forums,
     as we slowly get to "know one another." Currently my only website is my resume (but it's
     illustrated!):

     http://members.spree.com/business/refugeearth/resume/illustrated/BoydToEarth.html

     But I'm working on a new site that will have more in the way of introduction. It will tie all my
     loose pages together. Seems I have a million of them, and never any time to get organized!

     My daughter, Charity, said she will write to Erica. She's 11, so they are close in age. Here are
     our pics:

    
     xmasbabe.jpg
     (previously http://clem.mscd.edu/~boydl/Other/addictiv.htm)

     Hope the SQL is going well! So far, so good, with me -- long hours on some of the problems,
     but...getting there!

     Leanne

Gloria's original message to me in the Forums

          Hi Leanne, I was going to check out your webpage and it is blocked by CyberPatrol.
          Any clue as to why?

My surprised response to Gloria (Forums)

               Hi Gloria -- how weird. First of all I didn't know what CyberPatrol was, so had
               to do a WebCrawler search. Found out that it's one of those parent-control
               software to safeguard your kids. [Also found out lots of other stuff, like it also
               blacklisted all kinds of projects of students at MIT.]

               I don't have a clue why it's blocking my site. I just went and checked the source
               code to see if there is anything remotely offensive. Well, I must say, as with all
               HTML docs, it DOES have the "<--!body -->" and (un) "<--!/body-->" tags
               (boy, those disappear unless you alter them enough!) . Hope we can still mention
               'body' in our docs, or we're all up the E-Creek. Also, the title of the page is
               "Boyd to Earth -- It Ain't Much, But It's Home." So, does CyberPatrol weed
               out the "Ain't 's" as being bad grammar? If so, there are a lot of "vlink" and
               "bgcolor" and "coords" that are SUPER bad spelling in HTML. The site also
               asks "Is this CYBORG?" so I am wondering if CyberPatrol doesn't want our
               kids to think on questions like that.

               Gloria, I'm sorry, I'm getting a bit off the wall. But, I am one of those soap-box
               Free Speechers. When my 11-yr. old Charity occasionally wanders into an
               undesireable spot, I simply answer her questions....

               Once you get to my site, it leads to my resume, which has dozens of illustrations
               I've done for real companies for real children's products. That resume leads to a
               website that details a project done for a company dealing with child abuse. I've
               been involved in children's products (robust, healthy ones, although I do squeak
               a cussword now and again myself) for over 20 years. I just can't believe
               CyberPatrol hates my site enough to blacklist it!

               I'd cry, but I'm laughing too hard. I'd say, check your settings and see if "ain't" or
               "cyborg" is on the list.

               Gee, I've never been blacklisted before. Well, yeah, I guess I might have been. I
               sent an irate letter to good ol' Nixon about nuclear weapon issues. My friends
               teased me for years for being on Nixon's s**t list (blacklist THAT, ol' C.Patrol!).

               I'm just joking with you, Gloria....the WebCrawler results said that you can turn
               C.P. on and off at will. Go look at my children's illustrations. :-)

               ps. If C.P. checks the pages on down the hierarchy, then it will first come to my
               illustrated resume, with the link to the site on child abuse. Could that be the
               'issue' that C.P. is picking up?

               Please let me know if you figure this one out ... now it's got me real interested!

And Gloria said . . .

Date: Mon, 18 May 1998 07:24:25

I was using my connection through the proxy server at the district office. We have CyberPatrol on the server that feeds to the schools. I'll check it out via one of my other providers. It may be one of the sites you are tagged onto. We "free thinkers" are always in trouble for something. I'll let you know what I find. I'm curious now too. We're still fighting the folks who do not think that filtering what the kids access via school is necessary. Although I am for "freedoms", I think it is necessary to protect the innocent. Anything a kid really needs for research that is blocked can be printed out by a teacher at home and brought in. Enough of my soapbox.

G/

Hope you can receive HTML! I found it!

I snuck over to my resume to see what I could ferret out. Well!

Hold on to yer' sneakers! Those Child-Protectors are ALLLL set to reject websites that have the word BABE in them!!!

This is too, too funny. Please go take a look at my website. I mean, Golden Key Honor Society, created the website for the Colo. State JUDICIAL Dept. (this Babe, did, yup!), Summa Cum Laude, MOMMIE ISN'T IN THE RESUME, dog-lover, (woops, it probably weeds out 'lover' too!!) sheeeeesh!!!

Here's the culprit!!! Me and my 70 year old zebra from Italy!! Not a Million-Buck Babe, but a Million-Buck JOKE!! I think we ought to contact CyberPatrol on this one!

This is the art that when clicked, leads to a VRML 'world' I created, in which there is a deserted castle that I made in 3-D, and pasted this art on one wall. You can explore the castle -- nothing there except some weird fire that comes out of the top turret. It was a project for a course, and looks quite good -- not as much so via CosmoPlayer, as in a VRML software on the hard drive, but oh well. Just a lonely castle whirling in space, with the Million Buck Babe plastered on one wall. Story of my life....not just 'lost in space' but blacklisted too!!!

LoneCastle and Million$Babe in VR! (CosmoPlayer 2.0 needed)
lonecast.wrl

(this is entitled "millionbabe.jpg " and it's at: millionbabe.jpg

(yes I scanned and altered a dollar bill -- which borders on what one can or cannot do, but as I do not try to pass this off as legal tender, I am in the "can-do's") (Notice it has my logo on it, and my daughter Charity signed the bill) (things I used to do when I had time/had a life/had fun) (promo stuff for BoydZoo Studio)

... and ps. -- I agree with the filtering at school, but not so much for the sex sites or the major gross stuff -- I just think kids will spend their time on the Beavis and Butthead website, or perusing the rock stars, or whatever. The Internet can really be a time waster if that's what you are wanting to do. And kids? That's what they want to do! Just out of idle curiosity -- and I did this and found out the hard way (don't do it at work where you have CyberPatrol or you won't see this -- be prepared!!)

Go check out:

Yup. I was trying to get ahold of ol' Billy concerning his tromping around the country yelling about the IT shortage, and go tell it to his Army buddies (story if you like, just ask), and I punched in the dot-COM.

Well the Clintonses reside at:

Whitehouse - dot - GOV ------> http://www.whitehouse.gov/

Joke was definitely appreciated, although I don't often visit sites like this. Can you imagine how many patriotic Grammas and Grampas, and Vietnam vets and CHILDREN punch in the COM instead of the GOV????? Now. THERE is a reason to have CyberPatrol in the schools. What a joke on the Social Studies teacher, eh?

Talk later!

Leanne

Added after-the-fact:
 

1. Would a site advertising "Babes in Toyland" be blocked by such software as CyberPatrol?
2. This situation has very much opened my eyes to the ridiculous stretches that things can be taken to. How about this one:

 

A story of a babe, laying in the manger. . . . . .

Quick!  Blacklist it!

---


 
3. It is such a shame (harking back to earlier discussion in the forums concerning extra care being taken by webmasters of schools in placing certain information online, for fear of lawsuit) that we must live in fear of being legally entangled for gestures made with the most honest of intentions; yet, slime balls such as whitehouse.com don't share that fear. If anything, the law protects them.
4. Staying true to my own beliefs, I would rather that my daughter "happen upon" this website, whereupon we could have a lively discussion about legal matters and slime balls, than limit her exploration of the Internet in its entirety.
5. If a computer, like a television, is monitored by a parent while the child uses it, then that parent will know when that child surfs into dangerous waters. Like the television, it is then a simple matter of reaching over and turning off the beast. Again, this time is opportune for making a learning experience out of even the dirt of the world. Perhaps this isn't the best theory for a school environment, but it is appropriate, I believe, within the home. Just because the child surfs into a site, does not mean that you, the observant parent, must allow them to remain there any longer than is necessary to start the discussion and the learning.
6. You don't have to agree with me. You don't even have to like me for thinking the way I do. But, you must agree that it is lovely that we have such freedom in this environment, to not only believe what we like, but to express what we believe.
7. Censorship, in any form, is dangerous. Censorship on the Internet is especially dangerous. The Internet is our last refuge, our last unspoiled wilderness. We cannot clutter it up, chain it to the wall, and bring the totality of stupid human rules and "regs" into it -- and still think it will remain the marvelous tool that it is.
8. What we must do is give individual and personal attention to the children entrusted to our care, and use ALL of the offerings of the 'Net -- as they present themselves -- as tools to teach our young ones.
9. Children see uglier scenes on "Ricky" and "Geraldo" and sometimes "MTV" than in an occasional flip-flop into an X-Rated web site. And, the chances that they are unsupervised at the family television are much greater than at the home computer, where someone is always hanging around, waiting to write a paper, a letter, play a game, or balance the budget (sorta the same thing).