The Illumiminati (let’s skip those distracting interior capital letters for now) were founded a hair over two years ago and are still going strong. Well, not exactly strong — sneakily, stealthily, subtly, sibilantly. In any case, we think their efforts are needed more than ever before, so we’re giving them a new thread in the here and now.
Patience, Please
This site is under reconstruction and will look strange for a while. We regret the inconvenience.
My own latest contribution to world illumimination: The people who deliver newspapers to my neighborhood have a habit of dropping them near the edge of the sidewalk instead of on the porches where they belong. Whenever I pass by, I always fling them a little closer.
Our battle cry: Life against entropy!
“In Life’s name and for Life’s sake, I say that I will use the Art for nothing but the service of that Life.” –The Wizard’s Oath, Diane Duane
Recently at our school, there have been some incidents of hateful graffiti, and I mean serious hate graffiti, in the school bathrooms. We’ve had a school assembly about it and everything.
So in the girl’s bathroom, anonymously, I wrote “SOME PEOPLE ARE BLACK/JEWISH/GAY. GET OVER IT. #FCKH8” (Snip that last word if it’s inappropriate.)
That’s still graffiti and destruction of the school’s property.
Oh, Piggy.
There is now only one men’s bathroom stall in my school because one bathroom is closed and the other has a stall out of order. The one that is closed has been closed on and off for the entire year becuase of graffiti/hateful wrting.
In addition, someone graffitied on a stop sign, “Stop Skewl”
Somebody graffitied “Stop War” on one by my school, which I think is a good sentiment, but I still don’t think they should be graffiting public signs.
You know that removable blue tape housepainters use for detailing? Last week in Old Town, I noticed somebody had used it to draw fairly elaborate graffiti on a an electrical-transformer box. That seemed relatively public-spirited, as acts of vandalism go.
As I said on the random thread, I made a KellyxGiffords/STS-134 wallpaper in Photoshop at school and showed it around. Several of the teachers asked for copies, and one said it almost made her cry.
Speaking of which, can we get a role call of all the IlluMimiNati who followed my suggestions to promote the launch?
My friends and I yesterday declared it to be “Positive Message Day” and we put up sticky notes with positive messages.
Most of mine were poetry quotes. For example:
“i who have died am alive again today…
now the ears of my ears awake
and the eyes of my eyes are opened” – e. e. cummings
“Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?
Thou are more fair and more temperate”- Sonnet 18 (Shakespeare)
A few days ago I put a toilet paper roll into its holder, since someone else had just left it sitting on top. I also made sure that it rolled top to bottom, which is the ONLY way to roll TP horizontally.
I have never heard of the Illumiminati, but I would love to join. That sounds like the kind of thing I would love to do.
You’re already a member without knowing it.
That is, if there were such a thing as the Illumiminati, which , of course, there isn’t.
I suppose my act of happy chalking of the GBLTQ club’s house probably counts. (context: there’d previously been some bad anti-Jewish grafitti and some gay slurs written around there. It was all in chalk, though and we and the housemates drew over it in flowers after reporting it to security. After it rained, my roommate and I went back and wrote things like “peace” and “love knows no gender”)
I have another suggestion for the Illumiminati: y’know UPS drivers, FedEx drivers, mail carriers? Give them a bottle of water or a can of pop. It’s caking hot lately in most of the US. Someone suggested it else-internet, and the people there that work or used to work for these companies said that people offering them drinks was the only thing that kept them going through the day, emotionally and physically. Those trucks don’t have AC. A lot of them don’t get lunch breaks. If they go off their route to buy a bottle of pop, they could lose their job. In the back of the trucks, the temperature can be 125, 130 degrees. Leave a frozen bottle of water in your mailbox in the morning with a little note and put the flag up. Of course, you can offer water to other people too–roofers, landscaping guys, anyone that has to work outside in the summer. In the winter, you could offer hot chocolate or coffee. I’ve heard a lot of people say that, if you befriend the people that deliver your mail and packages, you’ll often get treated a lot better–they’ll go out of their way to make sure you get your package ASAP.
Just a thought.
That’s a really good idea! I would do it, if I actually had a mailbox…
Same. We have a PO box.
Update on writing inspirational things on stones and scattering them in public places: A while ago I think I mentioned that someone had put stones in this empty field near my house that belongs to the town; like, a path aorund it and everything. It was on the random thread but it was a very IlluMimiNati thing to do. Anyway I went back with some stones of my own a while ago, saying “hope” “peace” and one with a drawing of a rainbow on one side and “equal rights” on the other. I went back to the same place today; they were all gone, as were the original stones the Anonymous IlluMimiNati Member left. But I think AIM (or someone else) came back, because there were some new ones.
Specifically, “peace” and “believe” in the graveyard. (Which is right next to the field.) I’m going to go back with stones tomorrow. I’m not sure what to put on them (maybe some quotes?); what do you guys think?