Marginal prophet
May. 1st, 2007 05:02 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
j4The other day I got the following email:
At about the same time, somebody whom I know only quite distantly was emailed with the following:
As far as I can tell from the email, these people believe that they have the sole, $deity-given rights to the name "Ministry of Dreams".
It's not hard to link my name, my LJ nick and two of my email addresses (it's even easier now I've posted this!) but I'm amazed they made the effort just to send me some kind of bastard cross between a chain letter and those slightly-personalised "YOU are the star of this story!" books which you can buy for kids. Unfortunately, they don't seem very clear about what "on the internet" means, which may make it difficult for them to track down someone to email about the other 43,799 hits on Google for "Ministry of Dreams".
Edited to add: Wow, someone's vanity-googling fingers are quick off the mark: I got yet more nonsense by email after posting this. This time it was "From: janet mcknight stole my ministry name spoken by Jesus and will let go after <janetmcknigtfiredfromjob@muslim.com>", with similar schizo rambling and again the text of that LJ post. Apologies to anybody who's getting copied in.
And another: "From: janet stole and kept now releases but to late to keep rep and job watch <janetmcnightloosesjob@hot-shot.com>", subject line "janet is the laughing stock of net trying 2 make christian fall". I'm not sure which is funnier, the idea that I've got a "rep" to defend or the idea that I'd "loose" it as a result of being spammed by religious nutjobs.
From: janetmck / Janet McKnight stole the name of my ministry on site journal <thiefexposed@alumni.com>There follows the first couple of paragraphs (ending mid-sentence) of this post.
Subject: write janet mcknight and ask her why she stole the name
G0d spoke the name ministry of dreams to me and he showed me put do not copy on website and that is higher than patent, but janetmck stole. here it is on her website, and will be on the internet soon: here we see that janetmck / Janet McKnight, j4, stole the name ministry of dreams to make it hers when it says do not copy on website, she stole and will release
At about the same time, somebody whom I know only quite distantly was emailed with the following:
From: janet mcknight has my ministry name on her journal and was told <janetmcknightstole@alumnidirector.com>The email again goes on to quote the LJ post, in which I do indeed refer to a metaphorical Ministry of Dreams.
Subject: Re: ask janet mcknight why she stole my ministry name
on the internet soon: here we see that janetmck / Janet McKnight, j4, stole the name ministry of dreams to make it hers when it says do not copy on website, she stole and will release
As far as I can tell from the email, these people believe that they have the sole, $deity-given rights to the name "Ministry of Dreams".
It's not hard to link my name, my LJ nick and two of my email addresses (it's even easier now I've posted this!) but I'm amazed they made the effort just to send me some kind of bastard cross between a chain letter and those slightly-personalised "YOU are the star of this story!" books which you can buy for kids. Unfortunately, they don't seem very clear about what "on the internet" means, which may make it difficult for them to track down someone to email about the other 43,799 hits on Google for "Ministry of Dreams".
Edited to add: Wow, someone's vanity-googling fingers are quick off the mark: I got yet more nonsense by email after posting this. This time it was "From: janet mcknight stole my ministry name spoken by Jesus and will let go after <janetmcknigtfiredfromjob@muslim.com>", with similar schizo rambling and again the text of that LJ post. Apologies to anybody who's getting copied in.
And another: "From: janet stole and kept now releases but to late to keep rep and job watch <janetmcnightloosesjob@hot-shot.com>", subject line "janet is the laughing stock of net trying 2 make christian fall". I'm not sure which is funnier, the idea that I've got a "rep" to defend or the idea that I'd "loose" it as a result of being spammed by religious nutjobs.
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no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 05:19 pm (UTC)Absolutely bonkers. There isn't a way for them to get hold of your meatspace address, is there?
no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 08:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 05:23 pm (UTC)The last one was to do with a book I read, and the email I got from the author immediately made me delete the reference to the book. I didn't want to endorse anything from anyone who would go out of their way to be that rude to someone they didn't know.. :D
no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 08:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-02 10:37 am (UTC)Well, using another religious idea as a starting point, I think that you could easily do your own. If I was going to be accused of plagarism before I did something, then I'd do a better job to show them up after the accusation.
For example - "Future Dreams of Cake Ministry" covers the four Bakers truth of cake: (1) People not eating cake are usually not happy. (2) Unhappiness is linked to an absence of cake. (3) Cake is usually connected with happy events (birthdays, weddings etc) (4) There is a way to cake, that usually involves baking or visiting a Baker.
And then you have the teachings of the eightcakefold path - Icing, nuts, fruit, marzipan, jam, buttercream, carrot and chocolate. And then you post dreams with obscure symbols that involve you eating dream cake in some way. And if you can work some weird conspiracy theories and other perversions in there..then I'm sure the donations will come rolling in.
P.S The Illuminati have a bake sale to raise funds for taking over the world. The location is a closely guarded secret, but I have it on good authority that they have chocolate brownies. ;)
no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 05:27 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 08:59 pm (UTC)They've sent a followup since I posted the above, copying in about 20 addresses from a newsgroup I used to post to a lot (but a few of the addresses are things like "spam@nospam.spamtrap.com", which makes me wonder if it is scripts rather than people doing this).
no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 05:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-01 09:12 pm (UTC)"This was really like a real life deal"
Date: 2007-05-01 06:15 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-02 10:04 am (UTC)Vision Thing (or, let's play mad-person tag)
Date: 2007-05-02 03:45 pm (UTC)Misintry of Drams
EXOCET 9/11
1 And God, or at any rate Brian Blessed playing God, spake these words in a more celestial colour scheme.
2 gordon's alive
3 i r serious loon, this r serious rant
4 thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's damn fine ass
5 vision is time seven-dimensional hypercube revealing nature of ONE TRUE BRACE STYLE: richard stallman beware
6 dream vision of excellent pair of shoes, i need new shoes, NOT coincidence
7 vision of enormous pillow, woke up to find my marshmallow collection gone
8 rapture vision, arguably blondie's only musical mistake (popular with young people, though)
9 cock in my ear, dream of jeannie, vision of a new britain
10 vision-vision, vision of me having vision, received in vision within vision, woke up in cold sweat - NOT MY OWN
Re: Vision Thing (or, let's play mad-person tag)
Date: 2007-05-02 03:50 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-02 05:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-05-07 10:47 am (UTC)One has to admire the dedication of a prophet whose first intimation of the Divine is in gesture and manner very like a taxi driver in a bad mood.
The Moving Finger Writes, and having Writ
Sticks Upwards, and Instructs you where to Sit.