--- In tranch@yahoogroups.com, "All Smoke n Mirrors" <motuphi@...> wrote:

Imagine you're an unknown underground entertainer who's been too engaged in
works of philanthropy to aggressively pursue a career. You might do as I've done
and give up on your dreams of success, settling instead for the ability to share
your art with people you think you might like if you knew them.
Youtube and Myspace have become great venues for the artistic to share their
expressions with the world at large. Those of us who're truly into sharing our
art may not even care that there'll be no monetary payment for making our work
available to the general public. Such is the case in my instance.
I may've waited too long to come back to music to actually become what some deem
as successful at it. But I still wanted to share my muse with certain people and
set about making my way back to performing in private, for webcams and video
cameras. I decided to incorporate my art into works of public awareness, to
plant seeds in the next generation of philanthropists, to pass the torch to the
next generation. I made some videos poking fun at people who torture small
animals and some about fighting those who'd make dope slaves of our young women,
such as my "serial killer" video posted by my beautiful wife, Lisa Marie, on
youtube.
I shared my videos with just about anyone who had an email address that I deemed
to have a golden spiritual nature conducive to understanding what I've been
trying to defeat. For years, friends and family have been sending my "serial
killer" video out to those they thought might find the message formidable.
Some dubbed my work as awesome, while others didn't understand it. I was always
embarrassed at the quality of the videos. But the messages needed to go forth,
regardless of my own misgivings as to whether or not someone would be able to
tell I'm talented by viewing my videos.
I never had any problems with sending a video or having someone else send a
video to an email address I'd acquired. I've sent my videos to many people in
the news industry and never experienced any problems, just feedback. That is,
until my videos got shared with meteorologist, Jayne Smith, of the TV7-4 Weather
team.
I don't know if just the one video got shared with Ms. Smith, or if more were
sent to her due to the email being imported into the contacts list. I know it
wouldn't be the first time youtube glitches caused a barrage of unsolicited
videos to be sent to a contact list. I, too, am on one of those lists and
receive sent videos I don't watch, often. But it never occured to me to complain
about the unwanted videos in my email box or to cause someone undue stress over
a video I didn't solicit. It's too easy to just delete the email they came in.
It goes with the territory of this technological age we live in. Sometimes we
receive media we didn't want or like.
About six months ago, I got a new webcam and sent some fine ladies a "Hi,
Lookin' good, Girl" netzero video. My feminine side dictates an acknowledgement
of beauty on occasion. I may've accidentally included Jayne Smith in those
forwards, which she would've received months before any youtube forwards of
shared videos from youtube. I mention this in my attempt to understand the
mindset behind Ms. Smith's decision to call the police to complain about me
sending her a video that "Creeped her out", to quote what an officer told my
wife's neighbors.
A few months ago, some videos got sent out to the contacts list. This was when I
thought Jayne Smith was someone other than she presented herself to be to my
wife and me, today. Here it is, 2 to 3 months later; long after my last videos
could've been sent to Ms. Smith's email address. But this is a day my wife and I
won't soon forget. It's Monday, May 11th, 2009. On this day, police traveled
across 2 counties to go to my wife's Grayling home in search of me over a video
Jayne Smith received. They even talked to my wife's neighbors and disclosed
personal information about us to them, as well as their reasons for being there.
I don't know if Ms. Smith realizes that she caused us undue hardship and moving
costs: Now my wife wants to move from her home in Grayling because this incident
embarrassed her. It wouldn't be the first time I moved my wife over police being
called to her home. In 1995, I moved my wife from her home in Clare after my
little brother attracted the police to it. It could just be us, but a home seems
to lose a level of sanctity once the police have been there, especially when
it's something as embarrassing as being all but treated like a stalker of a
meteorologist. Not that Jayne isn't lovely enough to attract herself a stalker.
It's just not what I do, because I have no illusions of love that'd require
hunting and chasing a woman to obtain her company or affection.
It's an unfortunate turn of events for us, because Lisa works a block away from
her residence and was able to walk to work to decrease her carbon imprint. She
liked her house and looked forward to a summer spent barbecuing with her new
neighbors and walking our small rescue dog around the neighborhood. We don't
have the extra money to move, yet we feel as though there's no alternative, at
this point. How do we live down the perceptions about us that this occurence
caused? How does one interact with neighbors that barely knew you once they've
been fed an erroneous impression of you?
I'm guilty of a lot of things. I'm a failure by the standards of those who
measure success by monetary gain. I'm aggressive in my fight against the evils
depicted in my videos, sometimes to a flaw. I may even be considered guilty, by
some, of trying to divert kids who'd kill their classmates towards those who're
torturing animals and taking young humans as slaves. I've obviously made some
mistakes in my zealous promotion of my videos and for that, I'm sorry.
This story should serve as a warning to those who haven't yet had the police
called on them for sharing their art with the world. The free ride is over. It's
no longer safe to send your videos to some people. Being beautiful doesn't
necessarily mean one possesses inner beauty and physical appearance should never
be your gauge as to someone's ability to be receptive to what you're sending
out. Your message is only safe to share when you're preaching to the choir.
Vincent-Nick Ciofani III

--- End forwarded message ---