Laptopin it! |
Ahhh..perfect San Diego weather! It's finally here in full force. Still getting a fair number of June Gloom days, but the last couple of days have been “room temperature” sunny days.
I am out on my back patio enjoying the peace and quiet. It's Sunday morning and Kev is inside on my main computer working on my Model Database.
The new rulings for 2257 came out in May. 2257 are the laws that govern the porn world which are designed to make sure that underage kids aren't photographed and exploited. Ashcroft got real busy (and now Gonzalez) and they updated the original rulings to include all the high tech stuff that has happened in the last decade.
Lot of porn people were hoping it wouldn't get through, but with the administration porn/gay phobic, I figured it was a sure thing.
Much of the new criteria is real hard to meet. I think many websites will go under just based on some of the more tedious and strict rules.
Fortunately, I have always been real anal-retentive about my record keeping. I even had seen advanced 2257 changes and got busy about 9 months ago on the items I thought for sure would go in to effect.
Thankfully I am only having to scramble on some “minor” details by June 23. By the time this journal posts I am certain I will meet even the most finally detailed ruling.
The new ruling seems to be purposely vague. One part says that you have to list out every location url for every image of where the model appears. Some sites are just pointing to a root directory.
Remember in 2004 when the site changed dramatically to it's current look? Well, I re-organized all the models based on their alias and when the images posted.
This was just me being anal and organized, but it turns out it was a stroke of luck. All I had to do was take a program that lists directory/file structures, and copy and paste all the image locations in to their file. That took about two days to generate.
Kev did most of it, and he is now putting all the links with their 2257 records. A pain in the butt, and probably overkill, but better safe than sorry.
I can't help but feel like come June 23rd, we are going to see some “examples” made in the industry. The current Administration seems pretty religious and uptight, and I think they will use it to get rid of all us queers.
I'm not losing sleep over it, but I heard from a couple other sites, mostly guys who have content from other Producers, and are going to be shutting down.
I understand keeping records to make sure that children aren't exploited, but a lot of the new stuff is written in such a way that you feel certain they are just looking for some i not being dotted and to shut ya down.
Anyway, that was what my week was about. Just giving myself an audit to make sure if someone shows up I can confidently say “Here..it's all here.” And thankfully I was meeting most of the new criteria almost a year ago.
Just gotta get those image links done. It might not sound like much, but some models have about 100 images in their gallery. Plus the thumbnails, that's 200 images. Also their public Bio4ms images. And then their thumbnails for that. Also a few images around the site to make it pretty. It adds up quickly. Some models with 3 galleries will have about 1000 urls alone. Thank goodness for automated software!
Ok, so enough about that.
Garage Progress
Work on the garage was slowed down a bit this week. Mark had a test on Friday so he could have his own construction business. The test is pretty thorough and was kind of expensive. He took Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday to cram for the exam. Which meant no work was done on the garage.
Mark called Friday afternoon all ecstatic. He passed with a perfect score. He now is licensed to build a skyscraper from the ground up (though as he said, he really wouldn't know how…but good to know!)
He was back on the job on Friday, finishing the electrical.
On Saturday he got new insulation up. The stuff I put up was working, but a lot heat was still seeping in. So we put up the traditional fiberglass stuff on top. WOW! It really muffles the noise and I can't feel any heat coming though the walls.
I love working with Mark. He is really conscientious about how a lot of contractors are slow, just disappear, or don't communicate.
A little progress on BryanOckert.com
Being here on hand on Saturday was awesome. I worked all day on my new bryanockert.com site, and he would just walk in every hour or with some other good idea about making the studio really look and function excellent.
You can go over to the new bryanockert.com. You can get a feel for what it will look like. My “Concept” was to stick to a color scheme that is “one off” from chaosmen.com site.
I thought about doing the site all in Flash, but wanted to opt for something simple. Navigation is about as simple as it can be, although Ben indicated there was confusion with the Left and Right arrows moving to the next gallery rather than the next image. I will fix that.
I plan on referring a lot of straight guys to the site, and one thing I have found out, is that I live in a sophisticated tech bubble, and there are a lot of people who get easily confused when they get online.
So the site looks a little rudimentary, and likely is not as flashy as most other photographer's artsy sites, but my goal is to let these guys see the work as easily and quickly as possible.
I have one gallery done. Right now, it is just a bunch of images of Alex. It's not the final selection for that gallery. His images would be spread out amongst other galleries- no gallery would be of one single model. But for the sake of testing, it's all him.
I have nine galleries setup, and crap, it was hard to generate all those gallery webpages. PHP is so much easier, but I kept it all simple, plus I will have to track the URLs for 2257- doing it this way makes that easier.
Each gallery has a dozen images. That's only a little over a 100 images, which isn't much considering the number of images I have. I may go up to 12 gallereies, but right now I am a little burned out on making html shell documents, plus I don't want to overwhelm potential models. I need to go through my bazillions of images and find the Best of the Best to put on the site.
So go check it out if watching 'a work in progress' interests you.
It's never too soon to think about 2006!
My calendar is now out for sale on 10Percent.com. I put out an email message about it, and will likely put a link to it for the next couple months of journal entries. I really want to sell a lot of 'em. I don't make much of anything off of them, but it might mean a 2007 calendar if sales go good.
Birfaday Followups
I finished up some birfaday celebrations too. The office got busy and decorated my veal fattening pen with 'Over the Hill' and 'Fabulous at Forty' streamers, suckers, and even a tiara.
We also did cake. I tried to keep the birfaday singing to a minimum, it always embarrasses me. The cake was yummy and I even took some home for “dinner”.
Dale has been doing portraits of employees on our marker boards. He attempted to do me, but I ended up looking like a totally idealized version. The 'me' I want to be! Hehe. I found a porn star in a magazine that looked more like the portrait, and I think Dale was just drawing from memory. Even Dale says it not his best “likeness” but it makes me think Dale might think I am a little fitter than I really am!
Kattie and Chris had some good news. They both entered Santana's Cabo San Lucas vacation give away, and they both are in the 2nd round of drawing. That means they are competing against 250 other names. And since they each have an entry their odds are now 1 out of 125. If they win, Cabo better lookout cuz these two are always on fire!
GoldenRod
On Friday I worked late filming a blow-job video. Geez that sounds funny. It sounds even funnier when you are making plans with your friends. Ben invited me out to dinner as a Birfaday present, and when we were making plans for it I said, “Well, I have a blow-job at 3pm on Friday, and will likely be done by 6 or 7, but I am usually kind of tired after shooting the sex vids, but this one should go good, and I will just call you after I am done shooting.”
I did finish up by 6:30 and didn't have time to go home and change in to warmer evening clothing.
Ben lives in Hillcrest. I found a parking spot for my land yacht and we just walked over to Pizza Nova. They have really good salads and naughty garlic bread rolls that are saturated with butter, oil, and garlic.
We sat out on the back patio which was in full view of all the hot gay guys working out at 24 Hour Fitness. It was a little chilly, but our waitress turned an overhead heater on for us. Both Ben and I were tempted many times to jump up and go give the guys a business card. I really need more models!
After dinner we decided to walk on up to Urban Grind for their caramel apple pie.
But it was just getting too chilly. We walked back on over to Ben's place and he offered me this bright yellow sweatshirt.
Now I didn't want to sound picky, but yellow really is NOT my color. Instead of saying, “Uh..do you have anything a little less yellowy?” I asked if he might have a hooded jacket. Ben said he didn't so I just said, “Uh, ok, I will take it.” After all, I have never avoided bright colors in my choices for wall colors.
As we were walking along University, I really felt “bright” and I started teasing Ben about the sweatshirt. Ben agreed that, “yellow really wasn't my color.”
We agreed the color was more “goldenrod” than yellow. Kind of like an “Emergency” yellow. I felt like a street sign as we walked the 10 blocks over to the Urban Grind.
We realized we were seeing goldenrod everywhere, and that I was actually wearing urban camouflage!
Here I am after I stumbled on a handicap onramp. Can you see me now?
We got to the Urban Grind, and look what was parked outside! My matching vehicle. This is a very very VERY gay picture!
We ordered our piece of apple pie and lo and behold, the very wall we were sitting against matched my glorious goldenrod sweater!
After dessert and on our walk home, I found that I could blend in with just about anything- if only I was taller.
If you want this sweatshirt, it's yours for the low low price of $2.50. The model can be had for much cheaper!
I even match the traffic signals and the light pollution free street lamps!
Ahhhh…my flowers called out to me. It's a good thing the sun had set, otherwise I might have had some bees buzzing by to pollinate me!
And now, the penultimate tribute to goldenrod. Bank of America drive through with the perfect shade of yellow. Here I am swinging on the poles, but it looks like my sleeves have grown in to the ground. (ok, so you have to use your imagination a little!)
After we returned, I was sad to part with my new friend the goldenrod sweatshirt, but figured I would see it again soon.
The next day I got an email from Ben. He is known for being a bit of packrat and having yard sales often to 'reduce inventory'. I guess he decided to have one to get rid of the sweatshirt that had become a running joke.
He waited and waited, and yet he couldn't find a buyer! What a mystery!? I'm glad it didn't sell, cuz now I know that goldenrod IS my color and I can add it to my expanding wardrobe. If there is ever a terrorist attack, I can instantly blend in with many urban objects and stay safe in my camouflage sweaty. It was a very educational evening!
Well..that is it for this week. See ya soon!
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