After reading an article on wired.com about telecommunications selling spy data to governments (that is posted on my blog here) I checked out the blog mentioned in the wired.com article and man was it FULL of important information! Everything below is the work of the original author on slight paranoia. (The original article can be found here) I’ve only copy and pasted it onto my blog because it is VERY important that you read this information. Explore all the links in the article below. And please visit slight paranoia for any questions you may have and to read all his other posts or to just send him a quick thank you message.

Disclaimer: The information presented here has been gathered and analyzed in my capacity as a graduate student at Indiana University. This data was gathered and analyzed on my own time, without using federal government resources. This data, and the analysis I draw from it will be a major component of my PhD dissertation, and as such, I am releasing it in order to receive constructive criticism on my theories from other experts in the field. The opinions I express in my analysis are my own, and do not reflect the views of the Federal Trade Commission, any individual Commissioner, or any other individual or organization with which I am affiliated.

UPDATE 12/3/2009 @ 12:20PM: I received a phone call from an executive at TeleStrategies, the firm who organized the ISS World conference. He claimed that my recordings violated copyright law, and asked that I remove the mp3 recordings of the two panel sessions, as well as the YouTube/Vimeo/Ikbis versions I had embedded onto this blog. While I believe that my recording and posting of the audio was lawful, as a good faith gesture, I have taken down the mp3s and the .zip file from my web hosting account, and removed the files from Vimeo/YouTube/Ikbis.

Executive Summary

Sprint Nextel provided law enforcement agencies with its customers’ (GPS) location information over 8 million times between September 2008 and October 2009. This massive disclosure of sensitive customer information was made possible due to the roll-out by Sprint of a new, special web portal for law enforcement officers.

The evidence documenting this surveillance program comes in the form of an audio recording of Sprint’s Manager of Electronic Surveillance, who described it during a panel discussion at a wiretapping and interception industry conference, held in Washington DC in October of 2009.

It is unclear if Federal law enforcement agencies’ extensive collection of geolocation data should have been disclosed to Congress pursuant to a 1999 law that requires the publication of certain surveillance statistics — since the Department of Justice simply ignores the law, and has not provided the legally mandated reports to Congress since 2004.

Introduction

“[Service providers] have, last time I looked, no line entry in any government directory; they are not an agent of any law enforcement agency; they do not work for or report to the FBI; and yet, you would never know that by the way law enforcement orders them around and expects blind obedience.”
– Albert Gidari Jr., Keynote Address: Companies Caught in the Middle, 41 U.S.F. L. Rev. 535, Spring 2007.

“The reason we keep [search engine data] for any length of time is one, we actually need it to make our algorithms better, but more importantly, there is a legitimate case of the government, or particularly the police function or so forth, wanting, with a Federal subpoena and so forth being able to get access to that information.”
– Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, All Things Considered, NPR interview between 5:40 and 6:40, October 2, 2009.

Internet service providers and telecommunications companies play a significant, yet little known role in law enforcement and intelligence gathering.

Government agents routinely obtain customer records from these firms, detailing the telephone numbers dialed, text messages, emails and instant messages sent, web pages browsed, the queries submitted to search engines, and of course, huge amounts of geolocation data, detailing exactly where an individual was located at a particular date and time.

These Internet/telecommunications firms all have special departments, many open 24 hours per day, whose staff do nothing but respond to legal requests. Their entire purpose is to facilitate the disclosure of their customers’ records to law enforcement and intelligence agencies — all following the letter of the law, of course.

‘Juking’ the stats

If you were to believe the public surveillance statistics, you might come away with the idea that government surveillance is exceedingly rare in the United States.

Every year, the US Courts produce the wiretap report which details every ‘intercept’ order requested by Federal, state and local law enforcement agencies during that year. Before the police, FBI, DEA or other law enforcement agents can tap a phone, intercept an Internet connection, or place a covert bug into a suspect’s home, they must obtain one of these orders, which law professor and blogger Orin Kerr describes as a “super warrant,” due to the number of steps the government must go through in order to obtain one.

The official wiretap reports reveal that there are approximately 2000 intercept orders sought and approved by judges each year.

As you might expect, the vast majority of these intercept orders are for phone wiretaps. Thus, for example, of the 1891 intercept orders granted in 2008, all but 134 of them were issued for phone taps.

The number of electronic intercept orders, which are required to intercept Internet traffic and other computer assisted communications is surprisingly low. There were just 10 electronic intercept orders requested in 2008, and only 4 of those were from the Federal government — which was itself a massive increase over the one single order sought by the entire Department of Justice in both 2006 and 2007.

This graph, and the information contained within it, simply does not make sense. The number of electronic intercepts should, like the number of phone wiretaps, be going up over time, as more people purchase computers, and as criminals or other persons of government interest start to use computers to communicate and plan their business activities. Why were there almost 700 total (federal and state) electronic intercept orders obtained in 1998, but only 10 in 2008?

While I have no way of proving it, I suspect that there have never been a large amount of electronic intercept orders obtained in order to monitor computer communications. The electronic intercept orders, as reported by the US Courts, include those used to monitor computers, fax machines, and pagers. The wiretap report doesn’t break down the numbers for these individual technologies — but I suspect that the nearly 700 electronic intercept orders granted in 1998 were largely for fax machines and pagers. Thus, as these technologies died out, it is only natural that the number of electronic intercept orders declined

That still leaves us with one large question though: How often are Internet communications being monitored, and what kind of orders are required in order to do so.

The stats don’t cover all forms of law enforcement surveillance

As I described at the beginning of this article, the government routinely obtains customer records from ISPs detailing the telephone numbers dialed, text messages, emails and instant messages sent, web pages browsed, the queries submitted to search engines, and geolocation data, detailing exactly where an individual was located at a particular date and time.

However, while there are many ways the government can monitor an individual, very few of these methods require an intercept order.

In general, intercept orders are required to monitor the contents of real time communications. Non-content information, such as the To/From and Subject lines for email messages, URLs of pages viewed (which includes search terms), and telephone numbers dialed can all be obtained with a pen register/trap & trace order.

While wiretaps require a “superwarrant” which must be evaluated and approved by a judge following strict rules, government attorneys can obtain pen register orders by merely certifying that the information likely to be obtained is relevant to an ongoing criminal investigation — a far lower evidentiary threshold.

In addition to the fact that they are far easier to obtain, pen register orders are also not included in the annual US courts wiretap report. Not to fear though — a 1999 law requires that the Attorney General compile annual statistics regarding DOJ’s use of pen register orders, which he must submit to Congress.

Unfortunately, the Department of Justice has ignored this law since 2004 — when five years worth of reports were provided to Congress in the form of a single document dump covering 1999-2003. Since that one submission, both Congress and the American people have been kept completely in the dark regarding the Federal government’s extensive use of pen registers.

Since we don’t have any pen register stats for the last five years, it is difficult to do a current comparison. However, for the five years worth of data that we do have, it is possible to make a few observations.

First, in 2003, Federal agents used 15 times more pen registers and trap & traces than intercepts. Perhaps this was because each of the 578 Federal intercept orders obtained in 2003 had to be thoroughly evaluated and then approved by a judge, while the 5922 pen registers or 2649 trap & trace devices each received a cursory review at best.

Second, the number of pen registers and trap & trace orders went down after 9/11, at a time when the FBI and other parts of DOJ were massively increasing their use of surveillance. 4210 pen registers were used in 2000, 4172 in 2001, and 4103 in 2002.

It is important to note that these numbers only reveal part of the picture, as these statistics only cover the use of pen registers/trap & traces by the Department of Justice. There are no public stats that document the use of these surveillance methods by state or local law enforcement. Likewise, these stats only cover the requests made for law enforcement purposes — pen register surveillance performed by the intelligence community isn’t reported, even in aggregate form.

Stored Communications

The reporting requirements for intercepts and pen registers only apply to the surveillance of live communications. However, communications or customer records that are in storage by third parties, such as email messages, photos or other files maintained in the cloud by services like Google, Microsoft, Yahoo Facebook and MySpace are routinely disclosed to law enforcement, and there is no legal requirement that statistics on these kinds of requests be compiled or published.

There is currently no way for academic researchers, those in Congress, or the general public to determine how often most email, online photo sharing or social network services deliver their customers’ data to law enforcement agents.

While these firms deliver sensitive customer data to government agents on a daily basis, they go out of their way to avoid discussing it.

“As a matter of policy, we do not comment on the nature or substance of law enforcement requests to Google.”

“We do not comment on specific requests from the government. Microsoft is committed to protecting the privacy of our customers and complies with all applicable privacy laws.”

“Given the sensitive nature of this area and the potential negative impact on the investigative capabilities of public safety agencies, Yahoo does not discuss the details of law enforcement compliance. Yahoo responds to law enforcement in compliance with all applicable laws.”

Only Facebook and AOL have publicly disclosed the approximate number of requests they receive from the government — 10-20 requests per day and 1000 requests per month, respectively.

Follow the money

“When I can follow the money, I know how much of something is being consumed – how many wiretaps, how many pen registers, how many customer records. Couple that with reporting, and at least you have the opportunity to look at and know about what is going on.
– Albert Gidari Jr., Keynote Address: Companies Caught in the Middle, 41 U.S.F. L. Rev. 535, Spring 2007.

Telecommunications carriers and Internet firms do not just hand over sensitive customer information to law enforcement officers. No — these companies charge the government for it.

Cox Communications, the third largest cable provider in the United States, is the only company I’ve found that has made its surveillance price list public. Thus, we are able to learn that the company charges $2,500 for the first 60 days of a pen register/trap and trace, followed by $2,000 for each additional 60 days, while it charges $3,500 for the first 30 days of a wiretap, followed by $2,500 for each additional 30 days. Historical data is much cheaper — 30 days of a customer’s call detail records can be obtained for a mere $40.

Comcast does not make their price list public, but the company’s law enforcement manual was leaked to the Internet a couple years ago. Based on that 2007 document, it appears that Comcast charges at least $1000 for the first month of a wiretap, followed by $750 for each month after that.

In the summer of 2009, I decided to try and follow the money trail in order to determine how often Internet firms were disclosing their customers’ private information to the government. I theorized that if I could obtain the price lists of each ISP, detailing the price for each kind of service, and invoices paid by the various parts of the Federal government, then I might be able to reverse engineer some approximate statistics. In order to obtain these documents, I filed Freedom of Information Act requests with every part of the Department of Justice that I could think of.

The first agency within DOJ to respond was the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS), who informed me that they had price lists on file for Cox, Comcast, Yahoo! and Verizon. Since the price lists were provided to USMS voluntarily, the companies were given the opportunity to object to the disclosure of their documents. Neither Comcast nor Cox objected (perhaps because their price lists were already public), while both Verizon and Yahoo! objected to the disclosure.

I then filed a second request, asking for copies of the two firms’ objection letters. Those letters proved to be more interesting than the price lists I originally sought.

Click here for the complete Verizon price list letter.
Click here for the complete Yahoo! price list letter.

First, Verizon revealed in its letter that it “receives tens of thousands of requests for customer records, or other customer information from law enforcement.”

Assuming a conservative estimate of 20,000 requests per year, Verizon alone receives more requests from law enforcement per year than can be explained by any published surveillance statistics. That doesn’t mean the published stats are necessarily incorrect — merely that most types of surveillance are not reported.

In its letter, Verizon lists several reasons why it believes that its price list should remain confidential. Of these reasons — two stand out. First, the company argues, customers might “become unnecessarily afraid that their lines have been tapped, or call Verizon to ask if their lines are tapped (a question we cannot answer.)”

The second interesting reason is that:

“Our pricing schedules reveal (for just two examples) that upon the lawful request of law enforcement we are able to [redacted by USMS]. In cooperation with law enforcement, we do not release that information to the general public out of concern that a criminal may become aware of our capabilities, see a change in his service, correctly assume that the change was made at the lawful request of law enforcement and alter his behavior to thwart a law enforcement investigation.”

I’m not sure what capabilities this section is referring to — but I’d love to find out more.

Yahoo!’s letter is far less exciting, and doesn’t even hint at the number of requests that the company receives. There is one interesting tidbit in the letter though:

“It is reasonable to assume from these comments that the [pricing] information, if disclosed, would be used to “shame” Yahoo! and other companies — and to “shock” their customers. Therefore, release of Yahoo!’s information is reasonably likely to lead to impairment of its reputation for protection of user privacy and security, which is a competitive disadvantage for technology companies.”

Geolocation

“Federal officials are routinely asking courts to order cellphone companies to furnish real-time tracking data so they can pinpoint the whereabouts of drug traffickers, fugitives and other criminal suspects, according to judges and industry lawyers.” Ellen Nakashima, Cellphone Tracking Powers on Request, The Washington Post, November 23, 2007.

“Law enforcement routinely now requests carriers to continuously ‘ping’ wireless devices of suspects to locate them when a call is not being made … so law enforcement can triangulate the precise location of a device and [seek] the location of all associates communicating with a target.”
– Christopher Guttman-McCabe, vice president of regulatory affairs for CTIA — the Wireless Association, in a July 2007 comment to the Federal Communications Commission.

As mobile phones have become ubiquitous, the law enforcement community has learned to leverage the plentiful, often real-time location information that carriers can be compelled to provide. Location requests easily outnumber wiretaps, and as this article will reveal, likely outnumber all other forms of surveillance request too.

In terms of legal requirements, this information can often be gained through the use of a hybrid order, combining a Stored Communications Act request and a Pen Register request. As noted before, the former law has no reporting requirement, and the law requiring reports for the Pen Register requests has been ignored by the Department of Justice since 2004.

In March of this year, telecommunications lawyer Al Gidari, who represents many of the major telcos and ISPs, gave a talk at the Berkman Center at Harvard University. During his speech, he revealed that each of the major wireless carriers receive approximately 100 requests per week for customers’ location information.

100 requests per week * 4 wireless major carriers (Sprint, Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile) * 52 weeks = 20k requests per year.

While Gidari’s numbers were shocking when I first heard them, I now have proof that he significantly underestimated the number of requests by several orders of magnitude.

Hanging with the spooks

Several times each year, in cities around the globe, representatives from law enforcement and intelligence agencies, telecommunications carriers and the manufacturers of wiretapping equipment gather for a closed door conference: ISS World: Intelligence Support Systems for Lawful Interception, Criminal Investigations and Intelligence Gathering.

ISS World is no stranger to the privacy community. Back in 2000, FBI agents showed off a prototype of the Carnivore interception system to attendees at ISS World. Days later, stories appeared in both the Wall Street Journal and The New York Times after one attendee leaked information to the press.

ISS World had been on the list of events that I’d wanted to attend for a long time, even moreso after my research interests started to focus on government surveillance. Thus, in October of this year, just a month after moving to Washington DC, I found myself at the Washington DC Convention Center, attending ISS World.

Looking around at the name badges pinned to the suits milling around the refreshment area, it really was a who’s who of the spies and those who enable their spying. Household name telecom companies and equipment vendors, US government agencies (both law enforcement and intel). Also present were representatives from foreign governments — Columbia, Mexico, Algeria, and Nigeria, who, like many of the US government employees, spent quite a bit of time at the vendor booths, picking up free pens and coffee mugs while they learned about the latest and greatest surveillance products currently on the market.

The main draw of the event for me was two panel discussions: A presentation on “Regulatory and CALEA Issues Facing Telecom Operators Deploying DPI Infrastructure”, and a “Telecom Service Providers Roundtable Discussions”

Not knowing ahead of time what the speakers would say, and not wanting to be called a liar if I later cited an interesting quote in a research paper, I decided to make an audio recording of the two panels.

One wireless company, 50 million customers, 8 million law enforcement requests for customer GPS information in one year

Both panels are fascinating, and worth listening to in full.
Click here for an mp3 of the complete the Deep Packet Inspection Panel.
Click here for mp3 of entire telecom panel.

However, by far the most jaw-dropping parts of the telecom service providers roundtable were the following quotes:

“[M]y major concern is the volume of requests. We have a lot of things that are automated but that’s just scratching the surface. One of the things, like with our GPS tool. We turned it on the web interface for law enforcement about one year ago last month, and we just passed 8 million requests. So there is no way on earth my team could have handled 8 million requests from law enforcement, just for GPS alone. So the tool has just really caught on fire with law enforcement. They also love that it is extremely inexpensive to operate and easy, so, just the sheer volume of requests they anticipate us automating other features, and I just don’t know how we’ll handle the millions and millions of requests that are going to come in.
– Paul Taylor, Electronic Surveillance Manager, Sprint Nextel.

“In the electronic surveillance group at Sprint, I have 3 supervisors. 30 ES techs, and 15 contractors. On the subpoena compliance side, which is anything historical, stored content, stored records, is about 35 employees, maybe 4-5 supervisors, and 30 contractors. There’s like 110 all together.”
– Paul Taylor, Electronic Surveillance Manager, Sprint Nextel, describing the number of employees working full time to comply with requests for customer records.

“Cricket doesn’t have as many subscribers so our numbers are going to be less. I think we have 4.5 – 5 million subscribers. We get approximately 200 requests per calendar day, and that includes requests for records, intercepts. We don’t have the type of automation they do, and we can’t do the location specificy that they can, because we don’t have GPS.”
– Janet A. Schwabe, Subpoena Compliance Manager, Cricket Communications

“Nextel’s system, they statically assign IP addresses to all handsets … We do have logs, we can go back to see the IP address that used MySpace. By the way – MySpace and Facebook, I don’t know how many subpoenas those people get, or emergency requests but god bless, 95% of all IP requests, emergencies are because of MySpace or Facebook… On the Sprint 3G network, we have IP data back 24 months, and we have, depending on the device, we can actually tell you what URL they went to … If [the handset uses] the [WAP] Media Access Gateway, we have the URL history for 24 months … We don’t store it because law enforcement asks us to store it, we store it because when we launched 3G in 2001 or so, we thought we were going to bill by the megabyte … but ultimately, that’s why we store the data … It’s because marketing wants to rifle through the data.”
– Paul Taylor, Electronic Surveillance Manager, Sprint Nextel.

“Two or three years ago, we probably had less than 10% of our requests including text messaging. Now, over half of all of our surveillance includes SMS messaging.”
– Paul Taylor, Electronic Surveillance Manager, Sprint Nextel.

Conclusion

As the information presented in this article has demonstrated, the publicly available law enforcement surveillance statistics are, at best misleading, and at worst, deceptive. It is simply impossible to have a reasonable debate amongst academics, public policy makers, and members of the public interest community when the very scale of these surveillance programs is secret.

As an example, consider the following quote from the November 4, 2009 markup hearing of the House Judiciary Committee, which is currently considering a bill to expand the government’s PATRIOT Act surveillance powers. During the hearing, Rep. Lamar Smith, the Ranking (Minority) Member said the following:

Unlike other tools which actually collect content, such as wiretaps, pen registers and trap-and-trace devices merely request outgoing and incoming phone numbers. Because the government cannot collect any content using pen registers, a minimization requirement makes no sense. What is there is there to minimize?

After reading this article, it should be clear to the reader that pen registers and trap & trace devices are used for far more than just collecting phone numbers dialed. They are used to get email headers (including To, From and Subject lines), the URLs of web pages viewed by individuals, and in many situations, they are used (along with a Stored Communications Act request) to get geolocation information on mobile phone users.

The reason I’m quoting Rep. Smith isn’t to poke fun at his expense, but to make a serious point. How can we have a serious public debate about law enforcement surveillance powers, when the senior most Republican on the committee responsible for the oversight of those powers doesn’t understand how they are being used? Likewise, this paragraph should by no means be read as an attack on Rep. Smith. How can he be expected to understand the extensive modern use of pen registers, when the Department of Justice continues to break the law by failing to provide yearly statistics on the use of pen registers to Congress?

My point is this: The vast majority of the government’s access to individuals’ private data is not reported, either due to a failure on DOJ’s part to supply the legally required statistics, or due to the fact that information regarding law enforcement requests for third party stored records (such as email, photos and other data located in the cloud) is not currently required to be collected or reported.

As for the millions of government requests for geo-location data, it is simply disgraceful that these are not currently being reported…but they should be.

SOURCE: http://paranoia.dubfire.net/2009/12/8-million-reasons-for-real-surveillance.html

Dec. 12, 2009-Thousands of volunteers descended on Arlington National Cemetery to place wreaths on graves of the nation’s fallen at the annual wreath-laying ceremony in Washington, D.C. Children, families and armed service members gathered in the chilly early morning to lay wreaths and wander through the vast expanse of white stones. Check out my photos and read Kase Wickman’s story in the Bangor Daily News.

Dec. 12, 2009-Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) places a wreath during the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. The Worcester Wreath Company, based in Harrington, Maine, donates thousands of balsam fir wreaths for volunteers who place wreaths on the graves of fallen soldiers.

Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) was among the volunteers who placed wreaths. The annual wreath-laying ceremony holds a special place in the hearts of Mainers. Merrill Worcester and his Worcester Wreath Company, which donates thousands of balsam fir wreaths for the ceremony every year, are from Maine. Worcester first donated wreaths in 1992 and made a tradition out of it, which has inspired wreath-laying events nation-wide.

Dec. 12, 2009-Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME) places a wreath during the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. The Worcester Wreath Company, based in Harrington, Maine, donates thousands of balsam fir wreaths for volunteers who place wreaths on the graves of fallen soldiers.

Wreaths Across America semis, packed with wreaths, stationed themselves throughout the cemetery. Official escorts John and Bunny O’Leary accompanied the semis from Maine to Washington, D.C.

Dec. 12, 2009-Volunteers gathered around Wreaths Across America semis to collect wreaths and place them on graves for the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Dec. 12, 2009-John and Bunny O'Leary are patriot guard riders with Wreaths Across America, the official escort for wreaths headed from Maine to Arlington National Cemetery for the annual wreath-laying ceremony. The Worcester Wreath Company, based in Harrington, Maine, donates thousands of balsam fir wreaths for volunteers to place on graves of fallen soldiers.

Dec. 12, 2009-Bangor native Glen McGary, an officer with the Portland police department, takes a quiet moment after placing a wreath at Arlington National Cemetery's annual wreath-laying ceremony. Thousands of volunteers showed up for the event, including officers from the Portland police and fire departments, the Scarborough and Westbrook police departments.

Dec. 12, 2009-Wreaths Across America semis filled with Worcester Wreath Company wreaths for the annual wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

Dec. 12, 2009-Thousands of volunteers come to the Arlington National Cemetery's annual wreath-laying ceremony in Washington, D.C. The Worcester Wreath Company of Harrington, Maine, donates balsam fir wreaths for the event to honor the nation's fallen.

Oh, good old Xbox live. Over the past few months that I’ve had it (it was a gift, I’m a pc gamer and as such don’t believe in paying extra to use a pissing game feature that’s been free since its start over 10 years ago) I’ve been looking into all the nooks and cranny’s of Microsoft’s bastard child with Satan. Over all I’d call it a poor experience. Extremely poor in fact. But why? I hear you all asking in total shock, well let’s get started!

Reputation is everything…

Or not, as it is with XBL. I’ve been playing with the whole reputation thing and much to horror, it doesn’t work. Not a shock really considering the flaming thing can’t connect with a PC correctly to stream anything, but that’s for later. So what’s actually wrong with the Rep system? Well, before we go into details let me just point out that this is a very,very important part of XBL, even though Microsoft don’t seem to think so. It’s the only indication that you have of weather or not you’re playing with a total dick head. But of course, if it doesn’t work, you don’t know, at least not until the person starts effing and shitting down the mic at you. So, your games ruined before it begins.

So why doesn’t it work? Ain’t a clue, more to the point, why hasn’t Microsoft fixed this? Well I can answer that, they don’t fix things, they just break them. Example: The new dashboard. My God I have never seen such a messy UI, and Christ, could they actually spam more adverts at my face? I fear that if they did I would actually explode. I’ve been playing with the good rep, bad rep feature and have found two amazing things about it. Firstly, the tars that show your rep, they increase when you receive no rep at all. Basically, if you don’t get bad rep, you must be good, thus you get classed as being a good rep guy and the stars go up. So what’s the point in starting with 3-ish stars? They might as well start you on all 5. Also, giving someone bad rep for being a ass-tard actually puts your own rep down. I can only guess that this is because you’re then classed as a grass, and that in itself makes you a poo face. So because someone you’re playing with is a gimp and you go “man, I ain’t playing with that twat again”, and give bad rep, you loose your stars. I played with this for a while, after giving about 10 -  15 people bad rep, I lost half a star, those people didn’t deserve the bad rep, but hey, the whole things broken and one guy actually went from his 3-ish stars up to 5 because of my bad rep, cool eh? Another example, I have a friend who loves his FIFA, at one stage he had 19% bad rep. Mainly due to him kicking peoples asses (he’s really good), yet his stars said he had full rep. If these stars worked he’d have 4 and a half stars, it’s simple Math. So why is it Microsoft can’t do this simple equation and make it work?

I know that someone’s going to read this and think “yeah, so what? Who uses the rep feature anyway?” Well, no one , at the minute, because it doesn’t work. But if it did work, it could be used to filter out all the dick heads online and stick them in a game so that can rub their cocks together instead of coming into my game and shit pissing on it. Imagine, only playing a game with people that have above 90% GOOD rep, not neutral, good. You’d never go “BLAAAAAGGHHH!” at your TV screen ever again. When I originally saw the whole XBL thing over 5 years ago, I though cool, at least they’ve got something the section the twats off from the rest society. After all, I’ve been gaming online for the past 9 years and have put up with more than my fair share of tards. On the PC, the decent folk stick to the good servers, where they’re known and the cock fobs are kick banned. But of course, XBL doesn’t even allow you to kick/ban people from playing with you. Even if you’ve created the game, you have no power at all over other people joining you. This often leads to me leaving and rejoining games with my friends, which sucks because you sometimes, very rarely, meet someone that’s actually worth playing with.

Look at the bottom of this article, you’ll notice the 5 stars, most likely grey as no one will have voted on it. But, if someone comes along and clicks it at a full 5 stars, presumably because it gave them a slight orgasm, then 5 stars it shall be, until somebody else comes along and decides it’s total tripe, then it’ll have 2 and a half stars. That there, is a true rating system, showing what people think. The XBox Live Rep feature, is a massive waste of time, space and energy. The only useful part about it is that if I avoid a player, I’m ‘less likely’ to have to see the scrotum again. But again, Microsoft’s clever wording, I’m ‘less’ likely, I may still see the turd though. There’s ne definitive blocking feature to assure that grade 1 R tards can’t come ruining your 30 minutes of pleasure.

The flip side to this are the people who whine about receiving bad rep and put it down to “kicking peoples asses”. I could refer you to many forum posts on this topic, but I won’t, because forums suck. The problem with these people is that they don’t understand gaming, games and the entire social side of it (including all the stereotypes) that have been in place since its beginning. I think back to my “pro” gaming days (basically when I took online gaming seriously, funny how Xbox players class themselves as ‘pro’ though) and think of all the games that would get you in a rage. Mainly counter-strike. That game was/is full of 13-year-old kids that scream show, abuse and hack in an attempt to piss you off, which is how they get there kicks. Modern Warfare (or COD5, however you please), is the new Counter-Strike. Requires no skill and is full of kids (the fact i’s full of kids confirms the small amount of skill and thinking required). Now, if you play these games you should expect to receive bitchy comments and poor rep from people annoyed that you’re better than them. Then again, if you’re playing those games you’re probably one of them. And those people who have time to go posting about these things on forums are definitely them.

Monday and Tuesday came the downgrades for Greece by ratings agencies.  Now it is Spain’s turn, or at least the writing is on the wall.  Standard & Poor’s has revised Spain’s outlook to “Negative,” although its ratings have been affirmed and this does not signal an imminent ratings cut on the sovereign debt.  S&P noted, “We are revising the outlook on the Kingdom of Spain to negative from stable, and affirming the ‘AA+’ long-term and ‘A-1+’ short-term sovereign credit ratings.” On this caution, we are watching several key Spanish ADRs that trade in the U.S. and a closed-end fund and an ETF.

The stocks are Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA (NYSE: BBV) and Banco Santander SA (NYSE: STD) as the two big Spanish banks; and watching REPSOL YPF SA (NYSE: REP) in oil and gas and Telefonica SA (NYSE: TEF) in telecom.  There is also a closed-end fund and an ETF: Spain Fund Inc. (NYSE: SNF), with very thin volume and only a market cap of $67 million; and iShares MSCI Spain Index (NYSE: EWP).

The ratings agency said that compared to the expectations when it lowered Spain’s sovereign ratings in January 2009, S&P now believes that Spain will see a more pronounced and persistent deterioration in its public finances.  S&P further cautioned that longer period of economic weakness versus peers is likely.  The outlook also reflects a belief that reducing Spain’s “sizable fiscal and economic imbalances” will require strong policy actions and those actions have not yet materialized.

Spain’s economy went through much of the same property bubble explosion that was seen in California and throughout the Southwestern U.S. with creative mortgages and a land rush mentality.  There is also a very high private sector indebtedness of 177% of GDP in 2009 and what is called an inflexible labor market.

As a reminder, this is different than what we saw in Greece.  Today’s action is an outlook rather than a formal cut, but this is the prelude to further downgrade actions and it is frequent that an action from one ratings agency triggers actions from others.  S&P said that this outlook reflects a downgrade risk within the next two years.

Jon C. Ogg
December 9, 2009

Professions

• Enchanting
  • Enchant Weapon – Black Magic: This enchantment now sometimes increases haste rating for the caster rather than inflicting the caster’s target with a damage-over-time effect. It is also now triggered by landing any harmful spell rather than inflicting damage with a spell.
  • Enchant Weapon – Unholy: This enchantment now inflicts Shadow damage in addition to its original effect.

From all the numbers I’ve seen, you won’t be suddenly dropping Spellpower for Black Magic if you’re a Moonkin.

• First Aid
  • The training costs for most bandages have been reduced.



• Fishing
  • The all-new Kalu’ak Fishing Derby, a test of fishing skill with a healthy dash of luck, has come to Northrend! Every Wednesday beginning at 8 PM players can try to catch the elusive Blacktip Shark. Elder Clearwater sits in Dalaran for one hour awaiting the return of the quickest, most experienced fisher to bring him this shark. This champion fisher will be rewarded in-kind for returning with the first catch. Those who aren’t able to return with the first catch will still receive just reward for getting the Blacktip Shark to Elder Clearwater before he takes his leave. It is said that these sharks’ favorite meal are the bite-sized Pygmy Suckerfish. Perhaps a hook in their waters will do the trick.

I absolutely love that there is a new fishing contest.  I absolutely hate that it starts at raid time.

• Mining
  • Enchanted Thorium: This ability now uses the Mining skill and is learned from trainers at a skill level of 250.

Quests

• Weekly raid quests are now available from Archmage Lan’dalock in Dalaran. Every Tuesday at 3 AM the Council of Six will choose a different strategic target that must die from either: The Obsidian Sanctum, Naxxramas, The Eye of Eternity, Ulduar, Trial of the Crusader, or Icecrown Citadel.

Doing the daily raid rewards Emblems of Frost.  In theory, you can get a full T10 set this way, but it would take months and months and months and months and…you get the idea.  For raiders going for their T10 set in Icecrown, though; this is a nice boost.

Druid T10

• For the various Icecrown Bomber quests at Aldur’thar: The Desolation Gate, players can now choose to eject from their bomber seats mid-run. If you do so, a rescue vehicle will transport your character back to the safety of your infra-green platform.
• Azure Drakes and Dragons will now attack back when attacked by characters not riding Wyrmrest Defenders.
• Brittle Revenants, quest creatures fought for the Sons of Hodir daily quest “Hot and Cold,” no longer cast Shield Slam.

Achievements

• The Achievements to get exalted with the Warsong Gulch, Arathi Basin, and Alterac Valley factions have been removed from their respective “Master of” Meta-Achievements. Special titles will be offered to those who reach exalted with these factions.
• “The Party’s Over” has been removed from Achievements and is no longer a part of the “Glory of the Hero” Meta-Achievement.
• “Master Angler of Stranglethorn” has been changed to “Master Angler of Azeroth” and can be achieved by winning either the Kalu’ak Fishing Derby or the Stranglethorn Fishing Extravaganza.

Yay!  I never did manage to win the Stranglethorn fishing tournament.  Mostly because once my husband won his interest in helping me declined leaps and bounds.

Reputation

• Commendation Badges which award reputation with various Wrath of the Lich King factions can be purchased with Emblems of Triumph in Dalaran. Each badge costs 1 Emblem of Triumph.

Wow.  I hadn’t caught wind of this yet.  This is going to seriously decrease the amount of time you spend grinding rep.  If you run ToC 10 once a week, you’ll be able to buy 15 commendation badges.  My guess is that, like the ones that used to be rewarded from the regular daily, they’ll be worth 250 rep each (or 500 for Hodir).  That would be 3750 rep a week in addition to wearing your tabard (or a whopping 7500 a week for Hodir in addition to the dailies).

• Gaining reputation with the Ashen Verdict in Icecrown Citadel will grant players access to upgradeable rings from Ormus the Penitent. Players can switch between the type of ring (melee/caster/tank/healer) at any point in the upgrade path for 200g.

Ah, yay!  I always loved the rings I got from raids like Kara and Hyjal.  Glad to see this make a comeback.

• The following reputations have been sped up by roughly 30%:
  • Argent Crusade
  • Alliance Vanguard
  • Horde Expedition
  • Kirin Tor
  • Knights of the Ebon Blade
  • Sons of Hodir
  • Wyrmrest Accord
• Sons of Hodir quests now give more reputation overall.

While I think the grind is certainly worthwhile, as heavily as we have to rely on these factions for raiding, I can see why they’ve done this, especially on the last tier of content.

• Top-level helm and shoulder faction-related enchants are now available as Bind-on-Account items that do not require any faction to use once purchased (they still require the appropriate faction level to purchase).

I have mixed feelings about this.  It will certainly make getting my alts their enchants easier, but also less rewarding.  I’m surprised that they decided to implement this even after making the rep gains so much easier to obtain.  But, I guess for most, if you’ve done the rep grind once you’ve done it enough.  (I’ve done it two and a half times, I should get an achievement!  Lol)

Items

• Haris Pilton now sells a new 24-slot bag! She has stubbornly decided to remain in Shattrath City, so those interested should seek her out there.
• Hatchlings: Leaping, Darting, Razormaw, and Ravasaur Hatchlings no longer drop from their associated rare creatures. Instead, there are now rare nests that spawn which contain these hatchlings. For example, the Leaping Hatchling can now be found in Takk’s Nest rather than as a drop from Takk the Leaper.
• Sceptor of Celebras: Since this item is no longer needed as a key, Celebras will no longer give one out to a player who loses it. The item can now be sold or disenchanted as normal.

I am a rep.  A holiday rep.  In Greece. In a village.

That’s right, in a village.

Not for me the 18 to 30’s crowd and drunken Brits on holiday  (well OK I admit, we do get a few but not the throwing-up-and-crashing-down-dead drunk-in-the-street type drunks, just those who consumed too many glasses of red wine and fire water with dinner).

These ‘normal’ people are the protagonists of this blog.  I feel that the world needs to know, that it is true, that when they leave home to go on holiday, well you have to believe that they often leave their brains behind at the airport.

Anna

The Republic of Ireland are heartbroken as a controversial goal by William Gallas takes France to the World Cup finals…. From BBC News. Full story

This site may contain information about: greek soccer. For a different topic see in a sentence. The blog is also related to: history of soccer.

thats me
for web development =]

Posted by Audiegrl

Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA)

TPM/Eric Kleefeld—The local Tea Party organization in Danville, Virginia, is taking their opposition to freshman Democratic Rep. Tom Perriello to a whole new level — announcing that they will burn him in effigy, along with a similar image of Speaker Nancy Pelosi, at a rally called “Fired Up For Freedom.”

“At this point we feel we have no representation in Congress,” Danville Tea Party chairman Nigel Coleman told the Chatham Star Tribune, with the chief complaint being Perriello’s vote for the House health care bill this past weekend.

Perriello’s office declined to comment to TPM about this.

***TPM Update I***

DCCC chairman Chris Van Hollen has responded in a statement. “These shocking and despicable acts are becoming all too common at extreme right-wing Republican rallies. Hanging Members in effigy or displaying images of Nazi concentration camps on the steps of the Capitol have no place in any debate and Republican Members of Congress must condemn these actions,” said Van Hollen. “While there should be a robust debate about reforming America’s broken health insurance system, violent expressions are beyond the boundaries of a respectful debate. The American people are counting on Republicans to join Democrats in a constructive debate to help President Obama bring about urgently-needed health insurance reform.“

***TPM Update II***

TPM: The plan by the Danville TEA Party Patriots to burn Rep. Tom Perriello (D-VA) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi in effigy — a sort of Tea-Party Burning Man — has been called off, Greg Sargent reports: “We will not be going forward with the plan,” a crestfallen Coleman told me by phone moments ago. “We had to cancel it. The property owner won’t allow us to do it. The media attention was something that he didn’t want.”

Coleman said he was upset that people had gotten the wrong idea about his plan. “I’m disappointed that the story got out of hand and people misinterpreted something we thought would be a little historical lesson. They made people believe that we were committing an act of violence,” he said, adding that the “they” in question were the “liberal blogs.”

On Nov. 5, Perriello had a conversation with several of the TEA Party members, attempting to explain his position while they talked over him:

Related Articles

Danville TEA Party to burn Rep. Perriello in effigy

The Contemporary Art Centre is pleased to invite you to the next event from the public lecture and screening series which are a part of the VILNIUS COOP: gaps, fictions and practices project within the frame of the X Baltic Triennial of International Art. The series of events will be presented at 7 pm each Wednesday from September 9 until November 19 at the VILNIUS COOP exhibition venue at Gediminas Avenue no. 27 and other places in Vilnius.

VILNIUS COOP exhibition venue
Gediminas Avenue no. 27
Wednesday, 11 November, 7pm

Joanna Sokolowska Another City, Another Life - of the Archives, video screening with introduction

The programme consisting of photo and video works and documentation of artistic actions is conceived as a modified and extended version of an archive accompanying the project Another City, Another Life, which took place in Warsaw in 2008.

The aim of the archive is to map, how do contemporary artists represent and engage in spatial, esthetical, social and political regimes that have been developed in various cities of East Europe since the decisive changes at the end of the 1980s, early 1990s began.

The archive is constructed loosely around several thematic questions. What are contemporary consequences and potential of the abandoned ideas of the revolution, communism and of socialist modernity, that were implemented in urban planning and collective identities? What kind of new collective bodies, or shared experiences can emerge now in this context? Are there any new possibilities for the “lived”, subjective experiences of inhabiting the cities? How is the dialectic of destruction and building inscribed in diverse material layers of cities related to the memory work and to the processes of constant (re)writing/actualization of history? What is omitted, excluded in historical narrations and current images of the post-socialist cities, what kind of strategies do the artist use to render visibility to these phenomena? How do the artists position themselves within the ambivalent field of cultural production, what role can they play in the economy (symbolical capital), public and political spaces of cities undergoing transformation? Finally can the economical “grey zone”, in which – despite the rhetoric of cultural capitalism – many artists in the post-socialist countries still function, be transformed into an experimental fieldwork offering possibilities to break away from using art for the economic productivity?

The selection will include works by: Chto Delat, Skart, Zbynek Baladren, Mona Vatamanu & Florin Tudor, Khinkali Juice, Grigor Khatchatryan, Lusine Talalyan, Tadej Pogacar, Miklos Erhardt, R.E.P., Voina, Angelika Fojtuch, Karol Radziszewski

Joanna Sokolowska, (*1978) art historian, curator, currently at the Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz. She is mainly interested in economies of artistic production in relation to the changes of labour along with the urban transformations in post-socialist countries. Her recent curatorial work includes: “Arbeiter verlassen die Arbeitsstatte,” at the Galerie fur Zeitgenossische Kunst in Leipzig and “Another City, Another Life,” at the Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warsaw and in diverse locations in the city.

This event is kindly supported by the Polish Institute in Vilnius.

by C.S. Depew

I couldn’t believe it, he wasn’t listening to me!  This was my job that was on the line, not his.  I had been accused by the company of being negligent, violating rules and causing an accident.  Now I was sitting in an internal investigation with the company officials on one side of the table looking across at my union representative and me on the other.  The union rep had gone over everything with me that morning; telling me how things would proceed and what to expect.  He had been through this many times before.  He said they would interpret the rules to fit their version of the events. Then he asked me questions about the accident, and asked me how I wanted to defend myself.  I told him I wanted to be completely truthful, I had nothing to hide.  I suggested several up front arguments to defend my actions.  I knew what had happened, (out of everyone at this investigation, I was the one who was there.)  I did everything I could to keep the accident from happening.  He shrugged his shoulders, playing devil’s advocate and told how they would pick my arguments apart.

I was nervous when the investigation started, but now I sat there getting more and more frustrated because the union rep was not using a single argument that I suggested.  He was arguing that the whole investigation was unfair, and was trying to catch the company officials in a lie.  The company was also going over every statement and recounting every action that day trying to catch me in a lie.  He and the company officials were arguing back and forth slinging accusations while both ignored the fact that the statement of events showed that I had not broken the rules that I was being accused of violating.

The final result of the investigation was a suspension, which as it turns out was exactly what the company and the union knew was going to happen.  The whole investigation was little more than a formality.  I sat at home for the next two weeks feeling very unsettled.  I didn’t feel like I had been treated fairly by the company or represented fairly by the union.  Neither side had listened to me or had much faith in my ability.  It wasn’t until I was reading through the Sermon on the Mount, that I realized I had no right to throw stones.

Matthew 5:16 says, Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in Heaven.  I have been a Christian since I was seven years old.  As a Christian, I am God’s representative to the world.  I work for Him and on occasion have been called upon to defend Him.  I have the Bible to tell me the rules to follow and the guidelines with which to live my life.  All I really have to do is listen to Him, have faith in His ability and let my light shine.  Matthew 5:44 says, But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that  hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you and persecute you.  Through prayer and the Holy Spirit, He has told me what to say or how to react in a given situation; not just for my own good, but for His glory.  But how many times in the last thirty two years, did I listen?  How often did I have faith in His ability, instead of counting on my own?  I got caught up in my opinion of the world’s view and their arguments instead of concentrating on my only true job – representing God.  When someone attacked my beliefs, did I heed Matthew 7:1; ”Judge not, that ye be not judged”?  Or did I take it personally and attack theirs.  Instead of relying on Matthew 7:12a, Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them; when mud was slung, I slung it back.  Most importantly, when someone in the world was curious and asking questions about God, how many times did I choose that moment to be quiet?  Every day of that two week suspension was a glowing reminder of one thing; I have been a poor representative.  This is not a job that is at stake, or the loss of some income.  God wants everyone to seek the truth and find eternal salvation.  We are to represent God before the world, with the love and conviction that Jesus Christ will represent us before God.  Thankfully, with Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior, I know how that investigation will end.

Hi my name is Roy Clinkscales. Thanks for visiting my about me page. Hopefully, I won’t disappoint you.

In my opinion, WHO I am is more important that WHAT I am. So, let me talk about that first.

For fun, I’ll start with a true story about one of the many thrilling life changing events in my life. Perhaps that’ll give you some insight as to how I think and why I do the things that I do.

It all happened one afternoon in June 2007. My wife and I had been going through many challenges. It was a wonderful time. Perhaps I’ll write a song about it one day.

But anyways, from December 2006 through May 2007 we had been on food stamps. Several of those months we didn’t have access to our own car. It was in the shop. Eventough it had been fixed, we couldn’t afford to pay the bill to bring it home. So, we were using public transportation while working hard to build a network marketing business.

There were times we had to borrow a vehicle from a friend in order to hold a Private Business Reception for a new distributor. I really appreciate those friends who believed in us.

Somehow, my wife and I were able to make it to just about every single network marketing event. Broke, we made it to the $5 Business Briefings on Thursdays, the $10 Trainings on Saturdays, and the more expensive network marketing events as well. Since there was 2 of us, that meant at least $30 bucks a week on training events alone… sometimes more. We did this for months.

I can’t tell you how much I value those who believed in me. There were many other challenges we dealt with during those times, but since there were so many beautiful moments within them, I can’t help but smile in appreciation when I look back on those times.

So, that’s the backdrop for what took place that June afternoon in 2007. So, are you ready to hear what happened? Are you ready to hear about one of the thrilling moments that help change my mental programming and thus my very being? OK. Here it goes.

I used the same restroom with a guy who rubbed shoulders with Michael Dell (that’s one of the richest men in the world in case you didn’t know – worth tens of billions of dollars). Did you get that? Let me say it again. I used the same restroom with a guy who did business deals with one of the richest men in the world – Houstonian Michael Dell.

I’m not through. Afterwards, I washed my hands in the sink and checked my afro in the mirror. And guess who was washing his hands in the sink next to me and checking his afro? The retired multi-multi-multi-millionaire who did business with multi-multi-multi-billionaire Michael Dell (recognized by Forbes as one of the richest men in the Milky Way Galaxy).

I’m not through. Afterwards, we had a conversation. Not just any conversation.

He looked me in the eye and told me how it was before everything changed for him. He told me how other people thought he was a sorry excuse for a man. He told me how his wife was the breadwinner as he was building his business for the family. He told me how other people told his wife to leave him because he would never amount to anything. He told me how his wife would shrug her shoulders and with posture would say, “I guess we’ll just have to eat more oatmeal”. He told me how he, his wife, and his child practically lived out of their car at one point. He told me how his wife made the money to feed him and his child. He told me how his wife was his “arm”. (On other occassions, his voice would choke up when he talked about her).

I identified with him. Without saying too much about my situation at the time, let me just say, I identified with him. Everything he was saying to me was like soothing oil on my heart. I remember thinking, “Why is he telling me this? What is he picking up about me?”. Maybe he noticed that I wore the same suit to every event. Or maybe he picked up something else. I had already learned by that time that, when one has already subjected themselves to personal development, it becomes easier to read other people – you know just where they are in life and you know just what they need to hear.

Little did I know that his wife was having a conversation with my wife in the ladies room. Little did I know that at one point during their conversation, his wife said these exact words to my wife: “I’ve been observing you… I’ve been observing you for a while”.

You see, we were all in the same network marketing company together. Eventhough we were crossline from each other, we were on the same team. He actually joined a few months after I did. So we would see each other at the events each week.

For a while, I didn’t know he was a millionaire. He blended in with everyone else. And when I looked at him, I didn’t think of the word “retired”. I think he was in his early 50’s. It turned out that he was using his free time as a philanthropist and he had decided to use network marketing as a vehicle to fund his projects.

I can’t tell you how cool it was to know that I was in the same game as this well established businessman. Although he greatly surpassed me on many levels, he spoke to me as if I was his equal.

As I listened to him, he told me about that unforgettable hot Houston afternoon when he had been out looking for business. If I remember correctly, don’t quote me, but, there was a little shopping center and he decided to go in one of the doors. He said he was sweating all over. I think he mentioned that his shirt was wet from the sweat.

And the thingamajig he was carrying didn’t look its best. I couldn’t hear exactly what it was because he was talking a little low because there were others in the restroom. I don’t know whether it was a briefcase, tote bag, or portfolio. Whatever it was, it had all his papers in it and I think I remember him using the word ‘tethered’, ‘disheveled’, or something.  I could barely hear him but I think he said something like, “papers were everywhere”.

Anyways, as he continued with the story, when he walked in, he sees this 18 year old kid who’s as busy as a bee. The kid looked up at him and asked, “What do you do”? He answered. And the kid decided to give this sweaty man who was nearly 30 years old a chance.

“The rest was history”, he said. That 18 year old kid grew up to be Michael Dell, one of the richest men in the world.

Later, in another conversation we had, he tightened his lips, gestured with both hands, and told me with sincerety and intensity, “The reason I got to where I am today, is because I stood on the shoulders of giants”.

I learned so much from this guy.

The conversation also reaffirmed some things I had already been thinking, such as:

It’s OK if other people think you’re a sorry excuse for a man.
It’s OK if your wife plays the key role in the current financial stability of the household while you work on the financial stability of the future (as long as it’s completely reasonable, fair, and based on good counsel).
It’s OK to bow before those younger than you.
It’s OK to give other people a chance.
It’s OK if your first impression isn’t perfect.
If you must, it’s OK to sacrifice the first impression in order to get the job done.
It’s OK to peer into a first impression instead of just superficially looking at it.

Here’s a question. Can you peer into this impression?
What about this one? Can you peer into it?

It’s OK to ignore the counsel of the masses.
It’s OK to see what other people don’t see.
It’s OK to do what others would dare not.
It’s OK to look at the sweat of his face instead of the color of it.
It’s OK to look at the abundance of a man’s work instead of the shortage of his years.
It’s OK to have a late start when it comes to understanding money and business.
It’s OK to throw away silly little hang ups that don’t get you nowhere.
It’s OK to accept help.
It’s OK to acknowledge that every advantage you have was given.
It’s OK to acknowledge that every success you enjoy was a result of help.
It’s OK to know that I’m nobody.
It’s OK to know I’m somebody.
It’s OK to see myself in other people.
It’s OK to speak about my shortcomings with posture and confidence knowing that others can learn from them.

For example, while we were talking about our challenges in the network marketing business we were in, he humbly told me that because of his former business experience, he thought he knew it all in the beginning and that he didn’t have to follow the system of the team leaders. He told me how his business suffered as a result. He told me how his wife kindly suggested that he go ahead and follow the system of the team leaders and just see what happens. When he did, his business started to take off.

He had just made “Bronze” which meant he made at least $2,000 in a single month.

Eventhough I had not reached that level, I remember thinking, “Wow. With all the millions he’s used to making, it’s almost like we’re at the same level in this business… Cool! I’d like to grow with him.”

I could say this because he wasn’t a network marketing heavy hitter who simply brought a team over to a new company. He was like me. He had to start from the bottom.

From that, I learned that no matter how much I’ve learned in the past, it’s ok to play a new game and start learning again. It also makes others feel good when they know that a winner is learning with them.

So hopefully, this gives you an idea about who I am and why I do the things I do.

Now, what am I?

Well, I certainly wouldn’t call myself a heavy hitter in network marketing. It’s been about 2 years since I got a position with GBG in late November 2007.  But, it’s been about a year since I’ve actually hunkered down to build a business.

I certainly didn’t bring the team from my former venture over to GBG. I don’t have a position with the former company and I don’t get any checks from them. I made the decision to start all over with GBG. I began building my GBG business from scratch.

To build my team, I took an index card and wrote down in detail the type of people I wanted to partner with. I used the front and the back of the index card and wrote in small letters.

The index card represented not only the team I wanted to build, but, it also represented the type of person I intended to become. (I think it’s a good idea for any network marketer to do this – especially if they are starting from scratch. Write down in detail who you want on your team, and then become that person). Before that team was fully manifested, I gave it a name and called it Level 5 League.

From that point on, anytime I did anything online, I made it my aim to talk to those people on the index card.

I also made it my precise aim to repel those who were not on my index card. I wanted to repel as many people as I could.

So, every now and then, I would throw in a little slang. I made lame attempts at jokes. I sweated in front of the camera. I wore the same shirt, video after video. I passionately talked in front of the camera as if I was talking to myself in the mirror. It was my intent to repel anything incongruent with my path – even if it was coming from within me.

That’s why Level 5 League is so AWESOME! I know who I wrote down on that index card. I know that these are people who have gifts – the greatest being their character. I know that these are people I can learn from. I know they have gifts even if they don’t know it! And I believe in them. I look up to them. They are GIANTS. And it’s a great honor and privilege to be ’standing on their shoulders’.

But, if you still feel like you need a resume, I can try to give you one real quick. It’s kind of a blur, so, try to see if you can decipher it.

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Miguel Rep, Daniel Melero y Pedro Saborido fueron los invitados del segundo encuentro organizado por el Centro Cultural de España en Buenos Aires. Más adelante estarán Gabo Ferro, Osvaldo Bayer, Marcos López y Liliana Herrero.

Ya tiene su espacio, y bien merecido. La cuestión era darse cuenta y reflexionar que todo aquello que queda inconcluso, huérfano de final y carente de remate, no es algo necesariamente malo. Esa carrera abandonada, ese noviazgo trunco, esa canción sin arreglos, aquella historia con introducción y nudo, pero sin desenlace, y esa idea nunca concretada pueden ser producto de un destino cruel o de un inconsciente rebelde, que no acepta su papel accidental e involuntario, y dice “ya no quiero seguir, mejor que todo quede como está”. “Inconcluso” es el nombre de un ciclo de charlas organizadas por Federico Lisica, periodista del Suplemento NO de este diario, en el Centro Cultural de España en Buenos Aires, por donde pasan personajes variopintos de la cultura. El eje central es la afirmación de que la Argentina, más que un país, es el proyecto de uno. Cada miércoles, los participantes son invitados a exhibir sus catálogos de inconclusiones en público, experiencias que en principio podrían ser negativas, pero que muchas veces son defendidas a capa y espada por sus protagonistas.

Miguel Rep, Daniel Melero y Pedro Saborido fueron los invitados del segundo encuentro (antes habían pasado Bobby Flores y Rocambole). “Todo lo que se conoce como obra terminada es, sencillamente, haberlo soltado”, afirmó Melero. El músico, que fue casi empujado a romper el hielo e iniciar la charla, admitió no poder imaginar algo que no sea inconcluso, ni siquiera “morir y haber concluido”. Al igual que Saborido, quien hizo referencia a lo inconcluso como algo placentero que no quiere que se termine, Melero ve este fenómeno como “algo muy positivo para la vida”.

Pero, ¿cuándo es bueno y cuándo malo que algo quede, en apariencia, inconcluso? O mejor, ¿para quién es positivo y para quién negativo? Mafalda es una obra terminada para Quino, su autor, aunque en su público siempre quedó latente la idea del regreso. O Los Beatles, eternos embajadores del mundo inconcluso, del que siempre se puede obtener un poco más (de canciones, de dinero, de noticias).

Rep reflexionó acerca de aquello que queda sin consumar, por propia voluntad o por la falta de ésta. “Cuando uno no concluye algo es porque el deseo no era muy fuerte, en cambio el dolor de lo inconcluso es grande cuando ese final es marcado por los otros”, arriesgó. La ausencia del final, entonces, está marcada por los demás, esos que se roban la libertad del artista. Rep dijo: “Las cosas que valieron la pena que hiciera, las terminé”.

Historias sin final

Como buen guionista y contador de historias, Saborido fue armado con un cuaderno en el que tenía registrada una conversación con Eduardo Eurnekian, otrora capo máximo del canal América. Con motivo de un cambio de horario de un programa, Saborido participó, junto al productor Sebastián Borenztein, de un intercambio de ideas –por llamarlas de algún modo– con el empresario:

–¿Qué quieren?

–Cambiar el horario.

–No me rompan las pelotas, los levanto y se van a la mierda.

–Si es así, nos vamos a la mierda ahora.

–Bueno, váyanse a la mierda.

–Ok, pero nos vamos a la mierda ¿eh?

–¡Váyanse a la mierda de una vez!

Como era de esperarse, la charla terminó con la “inconclusión” del programa. “De chico me decían, por un lado, que las cosas hay que hacerlas bien o mal, pero hacerlas, y por el otro decían que las cosas hay que hacerlas bien o si no, no hacerlas”, recuerda Saborido, centrado en el papel que cumple la mirada ajena en todo esto. “La conclusión está relacionada con el resultado y con lo que el otro dice que concluiste, a pesar de que uno pueda estar feliz con su inconclusión permanente”. Parece un juego de palabras, pero no lo es.

Llevado al plano de lo concreto, Melero admitió haber abandonado dos carreras universitarias porque no se animaba a decirles a sus padres que quería ser músico. Rep, por su parte, abandonó primero sus estudios secundarios, luego los de árabe y, más tarde, su intención de convertirse en un maestro internacional de ajedrez. Tampoco terminó una historieta llamada “Tango”, ni otra que tocaba el tema de Malvinas. A la hora de juzgar sus obras, Rep diferencia su trabajo en la gráfica –que considera finalizado– de sus murales y cuadros, a los que siempre ve como objetos sin final, en permanente desarrollo.

Argentina, país inconcluso

“Hay un tipo de cosas inconclusas que producen dolor, y son las que tienen que ver con lo social y con las responsabilidades no tomadas por aquellos que tienen el poder para establecer cómo ocurren las situaciones sociales”, explicó Melero. El músico, nacido en Flores, hizo recientemente el experimento de viajar en el tren hasta Moreno, y pudo comprobar que todo aquello que conocía y recordaba estaba igual, pero deteriorado o sin terminar. “En una casa había un tanque de agua con forma de mate, que antes era hermoso, pero cuando volví a verlo estaba todo despintado y con la bombilla quebrada, y aquellas casas que eran un proyecto siguen hoy siendo bloques de hormigón invadidos por plantas.”

En referencia a lo mismo, Rep se consideró un privilegiado respecto de sus predecesores en el dibujo, el arte y el pensamiento. “Todos aquellos a los que admiro y admiré han visto interrumpida su campaña por los golpes institucionales, ya fueran militares o de aquellos partidos que reformulan todo lo hecho por sus antecesores, cosas inconclusas que son muy graves”, expresó. “Como laburante tuve la suerte de una continuidad institucional dentro de esta pseudodemocracia que vivimos, lo que me sirvió para desarrollar un estilo y un pensamiento, sin las interrupciones bruscas que han soportado otros creadores.”

El Ciclo Inconcluso se extenderá –porque no se puede decir que va a concluir– durante dos presentaciones más, con Gabo Ferro, Osvaldo Bayer, Marcos López y Liliana Herrero como invitados (consultar la agenda en inconclusoporaho ra.blogspot.com). El año próximo quizá continúe, para lograr llevar el concepto a la realidad y liberar a los autores de la obligación de poner un punto final.

Fuente: Leonardo Ferri, Página/12, 30.10.09

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