bi11i
02-10-2005, 02:20 PM
A couple of years ago, I had an idea of starting up a project documenting the lives of 6-10 opiate addicts living in Portland, OR. I spent a good few months getting to know everyone and getting close to the scene, but then magically one day I found myself right in the middle of it; instead of documenting the junky lifestyle and doing what I could to show the outside world what it's like to be strung out, I ended up being strung out myself. Oops.
Since then, the site has just been sitting stagnant. I keep renewing the domain name in hopes that I'll get up the nerve to move back to Portland and spend some time finishing what I never really started.
A member of the board here, Peripat, a fellow user and friend from Australia pointed me in the general direction of you. Right in front of my face are more than a hundred users of opiates and I'm sure plenty of those who might be interested in blogging their daily lives anonymously (or not) and becoming part of the project or even the project itself.
My original goal was to find no more than a dozen people and do some documentation, complete with black and white photos, about their daily lives of use, addiction, etc. and then post articles about them linked to by photos from the front page of the site. My idea was to document the heavily addicted, but at this point I'd like to widen this scope to involve anyone who incorporates opiates (or even other drugs) into their lifestyle. This could be just a blog entry every now and then, to an entire journal that you'll be able to look back on several years from now. These blogs would reside on a secure server and would be hosted via Wordpress (http://wordpress.org (http://wordpress.org/)) software. This blogging software is incredibly powerful from a Webblog perspective and allows a person to both post and manage their blog securely from anywhere with web access. Currently, the plans for the accompanying photos have been put on hold. I've found that most who are able to follow through with this kind of thing are also maintaining normal lives and don't want their identities compromised.
To give you more a little more to think about the site itself is www.junkylife.com (http://www.junkylife.com/). The general look and feel of the site will stay somewhat the same, although there will be some minor changes. The b&w pics on each side column will be altered to represent a blog. Either a picture of you or a picture that you'd like to represent you will replace the old pics of my Portland apt and will link to your blog at www.junkylife.com/Your_Name_Here (http://www.junkylife.com/Your_Name_Here)
There are only three main requirements to this project, and here they are:
Keep a valid email address so I can contact you. (If you need an email address, or even if you'd like an additional one, all participants are welcome to a junkylife email account.)
Keep up the list of junkylife links on your blog. You can create additional links and even additional link categories, but you must provide links to the other participant's blogs. I'll mail you the necessary links as needed.
Agree to keep the junkylife logo somewhere visible on your blog. Originally, I was going to have everyone agree on one central theme, but what's the point of that? Maybe we'll get there at some point, but for now all I ask is that you keep the logo somewhere visible. More than a hundred themes or 'skins' are available for the new version of Wordpress, and their easily installed and managed. If you find one that you'd like, I'll gladly make it available to you. Plus, I've created several defaults for you to choose from.
Need more to sell you?
Weekly backups are made of the forum, blogs, etc. You'll have all the functionality of something you'd otherwise pay a few bucks for.
I'm my own ISP. This project is long-term -- no need to worry about your work going down the toilet. I've been online for almost four years to the day and have less than 5 hours total down-time.
Look back in 20 years on what you've written! I've kept a blog for about four years now, and I can't tell you how rewarding it is to read back on my life (since I wouldn't remember otherwise.)
Pictures can be posted to your blog. Keep your own photojournal - I'm not going to get in the way.
You'll be part of cyber-history! Only until just recently have we not been able to bridge to the gap between the right and left with something as simple as a click of the mouse.
This doesn't apply only to strung out, street hardened junkies. This applies to any of the following:
Someone strung out on prescription pain meds
Occasional users of heroin or prescription pain meds
Those who have recovered from opiated lifestyles
Those who are forced into addiction via physical pain management
All out, full blown, junked out motherfuckers.
Anyone who's read this far down the post.
If there's anyone interested in participating, please drop me a line at bi11i@junkylife.com (bi11i@junkylife.com) and I'll get you started. Please post any questions here and I'll answer them to the best of my ability. Also, I want to make it extremely clear that I'm not looking for, nor am I asking for anyone to go out and create stories or blog entries. This project is also long term; I'm not asking anyone's obligations in writing a novel in a month or two. In my own blog, I've gone from writing an entry a day for a couple of months, to an entry a month for a couple of years. There's no pressure here. I'm also a junky myself, and I'm well acquainted with procrastination. I'm in this with full awareness that not everyone who signs up will follow through. Not a big deal; even if you're wanting to just try it out, knowing you might say 'no thanks' later on is totally ok with me.
Get in touch - bi11i@junkylife.com (bi11i@junkylife.com)or use the contact form (http://www.opiophile.org/sendmessage.php?).
Wanna see a demo? Head tohttp://www.junkylife.com/demo (http://www.junkylife.com/demo) to see the interface, or to http://www.junkylife.com/demo/wp-login.php (http://www.junkylife.com/demo/wp-login.php) and login with username 'admin' and password 'demo' to see to a live demo. --or-- head tohttp://wordpress.org/about/screenshots/ (http://wordpress.org/about/screenshots/) to see a few quick screenshots....
Since then, the site has just been sitting stagnant. I keep renewing the domain name in hopes that I'll get up the nerve to move back to Portland and spend some time finishing what I never really started.
A member of the board here, Peripat, a fellow user and friend from Australia pointed me in the general direction of you. Right in front of my face are more than a hundred users of opiates and I'm sure plenty of those who might be interested in blogging their daily lives anonymously (or not) and becoming part of the project or even the project itself.
My original goal was to find no more than a dozen people and do some documentation, complete with black and white photos, about their daily lives of use, addiction, etc. and then post articles about them linked to by photos from the front page of the site. My idea was to document the heavily addicted, but at this point I'd like to widen this scope to involve anyone who incorporates opiates (or even other drugs) into their lifestyle. This could be just a blog entry every now and then, to an entire journal that you'll be able to look back on several years from now. These blogs would reside on a secure server and would be hosted via Wordpress (http://wordpress.org (http://wordpress.org/)) software. This blogging software is incredibly powerful from a Webblog perspective and allows a person to both post and manage their blog securely from anywhere with web access. Currently, the plans for the accompanying photos have been put on hold. I've found that most who are able to follow through with this kind of thing are also maintaining normal lives and don't want their identities compromised.
To give you more a little more to think about the site itself is www.junkylife.com (http://www.junkylife.com/). The general look and feel of the site will stay somewhat the same, although there will be some minor changes. The b&w pics on each side column will be altered to represent a blog. Either a picture of you or a picture that you'd like to represent you will replace the old pics of my Portland apt and will link to your blog at www.junkylife.com/Your_Name_Here (http://www.junkylife.com/Your_Name_Here)
There are only three main requirements to this project, and here they are:
Keep a valid email address so I can contact you. (If you need an email address, or even if you'd like an additional one, all participants are welcome to a junkylife email account.)
Keep up the list of junkylife links on your blog. You can create additional links and even additional link categories, but you must provide links to the other participant's blogs. I'll mail you the necessary links as needed.
Agree to keep the junkylife logo somewhere visible on your blog. Originally, I was going to have everyone agree on one central theme, but what's the point of that? Maybe we'll get there at some point, but for now all I ask is that you keep the logo somewhere visible. More than a hundred themes or 'skins' are available for the new version of Wordpress, and their easily installed and managed. If you find one that you'd like, I'll gladly make it available to you. Plus, I've created several defaults for you to choose from.
Need more to sell you?
Weekly backups are made of the forum, blogs, etc. You'll have all the functionality of something you'd otherwise pay a few bucks for.
I'm my own ISP. This project is long-term -- no need to worry about your work going down the toilet. I've been online for almost four years to the day and have less than 5 hours total down-time.
Look back in 20 years on what you've written! I've kept a blog for about four years now, and I can't tell you how rewarding it is to read back on my life (since I wouldn't remember otherwise.)
Pictures can be posted to your blog. Keep your own photojournal - I'm not going to get in the way.
You'll be part of cyber-history! Only until just recently have we not been able to bridge to the gap between the right and left with something as simple as a click of the mouse.
This doesn't apply only to strung out, street hardened junkies. This applies to any of the following:
Someone strung out on prescription pain meds
Occasional users of heroin or prescription pain meds
Those who have recovered from opiated lifestyles
Those who are forced into addiction via physical pain management
All out, full blown, junked out motherfuckers.
Anyone who's read this far down the post.
If there's anyone interested in participating, please drop me a line at bi11i@junkylife.com (bi11i@junkylife.com) and I'll get you started. Please post any questions here and I'll answer them to the best of my ability. Also, I want to make it extremely clear that I'm not looking for, nor am I asking for anyone to go out and create stories or blog entries. This project is also long term; I'm not asking anyone's obligations in writing a novel in a month or two. In my own blog, I've gone from writing an entry a day for a couple of months, to an entry a month for a couple of years. There's no pressure here. I'm also a junky myself, and I'm well acquainted with procrastination. I'm in this with full awareness that not everyone who signs up will follow through. Not a big deal; even if you're wanting to just try it out, knowing you might say 'no thanks' later on is totally ok with me.
Get in touch - bi11i@junkylife.com (bi11i@junkylife.com)or use the contact form (http://www.opiophile.org/sendmessage.php?).
Wanna see a demo? Head tohttp://www.junkylife.com/demo (http://www.junkylife.com/demo) to see the interface, or to http://www.junkylife.com/demo/wp-login.php (http://www.junkylife.com/demo/wp-login.php) and login with username 'admin' and password 'demo' to see to a live demo. --or-- head tohttp://wordpress.org/about/screenshots/ (http://wordpress.org/about/screenshots/) to see a few quick screenshots....