Strange what people will latch onto sometimes…
4 minute read
June 26, 2021, 10:10 AM
It’s funny what things people lock onto, take out of context, and run with in the age of the Internet. I remember when my Code Pink photo in front of the White House became a discussion about President Obama and the 2012 election. That made enough sense, because while it was a different context than the original one, it was still in the same vein, being anti-war and all. More recently, though, a very old photo of mine was dusted off by a certain crowd and run in a completely different context than intended. Remember this photo?
Continue reading…Categories: COVID-19, Politics, Project Chanology
Yes, that is a green lock up there…
6 minute read
February 21, 2016, 10:12 AM
So in case you haven’t noticed yet, I would like to bring something to your attention. Up until this past Friday morning, Schumin Web appeared like this in your address bar:
Now it looks like this:
Yes, Schumin Web is now being served over HTTPS, i.e. the site is now encrypted.
I consider it kind of funny that the site is now encrypted, because in the grand scheme of things, Schumin Web is rather inconsequential as far as things worth encrypting. After all, it’s primarily a blog and photography site. You can’t buy anything directly on Schumin Web, as all of the areas in the Store section are outsourced to third parties. The content is also very one-way. Other than the email contact form and the comment sections on Journal entries and such, it’s basically whatever I want to show you. Oh, and the aforementioned two areas are also outsourced to third parties (Bravenet and Disqus, respectively). Therefore, I wasn’t about to shell out money to get a certificate and go through the trouble of installing it and all of that.
Categories: Project Chanology, Schumin Web meta
How many Scientologists does it take to fix a roof?
2 minute read
February 27, 2011, 12:23 AM
It could start out a particularly bad joke, but the question still is, “How many cult members does it take to fix a roof?” Well, it turns out that the answer is nine. Here’s how it breaks down:
One to fix it…
Categories: Amusing, Project Chanology
Greetings from CAF 5109…
3 minute read
November 17, 2010, 7:29 PM
First of all, hello from CAF 5109. I am riding the Red Line home from the Tenleytown area, having just had a wonderful time enjoying a cup of coffee with a friend. Always good to see friends, and nothing beats a hot cup of coffee on a cool fall evening.
Meanwhile, this is my first time actually writing a Journal entry on my netbook while on the Metro. The train is not crowded by any means, so I’m sitting sideways in a row and typing with the computer on one leg. And it seems to work. I’m listening to Randi Rhodes on podcast, and just tapping away on the keyboard. For those wondering, I don’t have Internet on here right now, but instead, I will post this when I get home. I’m too late for the 51, so I figure, I’m either going to take the Y9 bus or walk. Follow me on the Twitter and find out, I suppose. Meanwhile, this train did not service Farragut North, strangely enough. When we went through (without stopping), there was caution tape on the platform and a bunch of people in safety vests at the outbound end, but a lot of regular people on the inbound end. Go fig. I know that the L Street entrance was closed, but who knows if that’s related.
Then this weekend is raid weekend. It’s always fun to troll Scientology, and this ought to be good, though I’m concerned that our numbers will be down due to its being so close to Thanksgiving. This is, after all, the weekend before Thanksgiving, and I’m sure that many people will be taking off early for the holiday. However, Scientology is not above scamming people out of large sums of their money on the weekend before Thanksgiving, and thus we will be outside to troll. It’s this Saturday from 1-5 PM. Hope to see you there. Should be fun. Hopefully I’ll be proven wrong on the numbers, and we’ll have a good number of (masked) faces out there trolling Scientology.
Categories: Computer, Project Chanology, Schumin Web meta, Thanksgiving, WMATA
Not a soul came to take a stress test while we were out there…
4 minute read
August 22, 2010, 11:19 PM
Well, I’d say that our raid on Saturday was a success. Not a single person came to take a “free stress test” while we were out raiding, and eventually Scientology decided to just pack it in. This is what their stress test table looked like most of the time we were out:
Categories: Project Chanology
This time, I am saying something substantive while on camera…
< 1 minute read
August 21, 2010, 11:54 PM
So I gave the “Schumin Web Video Journal” (a name I came up with after I filmed this) a spin once again:
Categories: Companies, Products, Project Chanology, Schumin Web meta, Video Journal
Everyone say, “Xenu!”
3 minute read
August 15, 2010, 2:18 PM
It’s funny how Fridays work out sometimes. Last Friday, a few of us went out after work, and ended up at Maddy’s in Dupont Circle, on the west side of Connecticut Avenue between R and S streets. All in all, it wasn’t a bad time. We had a couple of beers, and some other bar food. They actually had a baked potato on the menu, which I had. Not too shabby if you ask me.
Then afterwards, some of us were heading back to the Metro and others back towards the office, and our path took us past the Fraser Mansion, which, as you know, is the old Founding Church of Scientology before they moved right next door to my office (someone should consider a cult moving in next door as creating a hostile work environment). So we got a photo while we were there, especially when one considers that one of my coworkers ended up briefly visiting the last Anon raid (after I left).
Photo: Sarah Alexander
Categories: Fire drills, Project Chanology
The following is completely secret, and absolutely serious…
5 minute read
August 6, 2010, 11:20 PM
So today was interesting. It was a very quiet day at work today, with a lot of people either traveling on business or on vacation. We had so few people, we didn’t even do our regular “lunch buddies” today. However, that’s not to say I didn’t have a few amusing moments…
First of all, I would like to point out that the people that design digital projectors should be required to mount their own projectors and then change the bulbs in them. The bulb in the digital projector in one of our conference rooms recently burned out, and it ended up becoming a much more involved process than I had wanted. See, the manufacturer, InFocus in this case, put the access door for changing the bulb on the same side as the mounting apparatus. Thus in order to change the bulb, one must:
Categories: Project Chanology, WMATA, Work
Do what you want ’cause a pirate is free… YOU ARE A PIRATE!
4 minute read
July 17, 2010, 9:34 PM
Yes, today was Anonymous DC’s annual “Sea Arrrgh” raid, where pirates was the theme. We usually do pirates in June, but due to problems with scheduling and then weather, we ended up scrapping the June raid and doing pirates in July.
The big thing about this raid was seeing the most recent development that came out of Sparrow’s solo raiding that he does during the week. Yesterday, Sparrow received an official Suppressive Person Declare, which is the Scientology equivalent of being excommunicated in other religious groups. I got to read his SP declare, and it was absolutely hilarious, with a number of things that just seemed “canned”, but in Scientology’s own little (alien) world, I’m sure it means something totally serious.
And meanwhile, here’s Sparrow, all smiles as a declared Suppressive Person:
Categories: Family, Project Chanology
We may have only had three people, but those three were something…
5 minute read
May 11, 2010, 2:34 PM
Yes, on Saturday, May 8, Anonymous DC held its monthly raid from 3-8 PM, protesting the abusive practices of the Church of Scientology. This was also our smallest monthly raid yet, with all of three people in attendance. Those three people were MaidofWin, Sparrow, and myself. Sparrow wore a Guy Fawkes mask. MaidofWin had a stars-and-stripes bandanna and big movie-star sunglasses. I wore my zentai for the first time this season.
It’s funny about the zentai, though. I was actually late to the raid on account of not being sure what I wanted to wear with it. As you know, when I raid, I’ve always used the zentai as a base layer under other clothes. Remember that in 2008, the zentai look was tie dye and funny hat. Then in 2009, I went with black-on-black-on-black as the zentai look. This time, I wanted to do something different, but at the same time, make it fun. I tried a number of different combinations, and nothing seemed to work. I eventually resigned myself to the fact that I was unable to properly accessorize things, and ended up packing the 2008 “look” to change into once I got down there.
However, once I got down there and started putting on the zentai, I got the suit on, and then decided to go out with only the suit. I’d always been a little concerned about doing that in the past, specifically about whether I’d look too “lumpy” under there (“lumpy” in this case referring to the love handles and what have you that I sport). As it turned out, though, I looked fine, as the zentai smoothed out all the lines. After getting up the nerve to actually go out wearing the zentai by itself (never did that in public before), it seemed to work. And then when I got to the raid site, I put the hood up and the “windshield goggles” on (they fit over my glasses), which completed my anonymity, and I got out a stack of You Found The Card cards. I’d say I was ready to raid.
Categories: Project Chanology
The FCDC furniture sale was quite revealing in more ways than one…
10 minute read
May 4, 2010, 8:30 PM
While Anonymous raided a yellow tent on the Mall, I took part in a different operation. I went to the Founding Church of Scientology (FCDC) furniture sale at their old Org, the Fraser Mansion, where we had raided many times in the past. I brought my checkbook along, just in case there really was furniture that I was interested in, though I considered that to be highly unlikely.
So I drove down, and parked in the parking lot behind the building:
I considered that a bit ballsy on my part, but then again, this wasn’t a raid, and additionally, if I really did buy furniture, I would have had to bring the car back around regardless. So whatever. If they didn’t like it, whatever.
Categories: Project Chanology
Epic wind!
5 minute read
April 20, 2010, 9:23 PM
On April 17, Anonymous DC raided the Founding Church of Scientology’s “Ideal Org”. This was to be a fun raid, once we figured out how to deal with the weather conditions. It was windy. Really windy. If it gives you any idea about how windy it was, the wind was blowing so hard that we couldn’t wear our Guy Fawkes masks. Anyman tried to wear his Guy Fawkes mask, but actually lost it to the wind. Seriously. It blew right off his face, and blew down the street and out of sight before anyone could recover it. And it was a pretty cool take on the Guy Fawkes mask, too, with half of it colored black, seen here in this June 2009 file photo:
Categories: Gas prices, Project Chanology
Would you buy a used E-meter from this man?
4 minute read
March 15, 2010, 12:17 AM
Anonymous had its March raid on Saturday. Appropriately, it was Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard‘s 99th birthday on the day we raided. Our theme was over-the-top rainbow.
I, however, had a different look in mind for myself. Working next door to the monstrosity known as the Founding Church of Scientology, I see them around quite a bit. And the uniform for the Org staff at the Ideal Org location is a black suit and gold pocket square. The shirt varies between black turtleneck and white collared shirt. I have a black suit. I also have a black turtleneck. And with this kind of spoofing in mind, I ordered a gold pocket square. And I dressed up in their uniform, in order to possibly de-legitimize the Scientologists in the eyes of the public. So the question becomes, would you buy a used E-meter from this man?
Categories: Project Chanology
Go stand in a walk-in freezer for about three hours and then report back to me.
3 minute read
January 10, 2010, 11:24 PM
Yeah. Go stand in a walk-in freezer for about three hours and then report back to me about how it was. That’s pretty much what it felt like out there while we raided Scientology on Saturday, January 9. But add some wind. It was pretty bloody cold, if I do say so myself (and I do).
But we raided. We had a small but dedicated group out there for this one. You had HT, Sparrow, MaidofWin, Purple Hair Anon, and myself out there giving Scientology hell. MaidofWin and Purple worked the corner, and HT and I took the entrance to the Ideal Org. And Sparrow did his usual thing, confronting the Scientologists on camera. And it was cold. Very cold. Everyone was wrapped up for the cold, and I wore the setup that I wore last year at the January flash raid. It may look like I came straight out of the hazmat unit, but it’s warm, and I had every square inch of skin covered.
And here we are:
Categories: Project Chanology
I handed a “You Found The Card” card to Ralph Nader! EPIC WIN!
5 minute read
December 12, 2009, 11:08 PM
The December raid was particularly epic for DC Anons, as we had a good time, and got the word out to many passers-by. The crowd was small, however, as a few Anons were feeling under the weather, and I believe the cold scared a few people off. Cold has that way of doing that to people. But the crowd that was there was dedicated.
Early on, we just had 3rdman, Purple Hair Anon, and me. But that was sufficient to get the epic win of the year. We’re raiding, doing what Anons do outside the Ideal Org, and here comes Ralph Nader down P Street. I greeted him, explained that we were protesting the abuses of the Church of Scientology, and gave him a You Found The Card card. Nader questioned why we were at 16th and P Streets, and not at the Fraser Mansion, not realizing that Scientology moved from the Fraser Mansion to the Embassy Building a month or so prior. I explained that they had moved, and this was their new location. That’s when he noticed that Scientology was over there. In departing (as Nader had places to go), he told us to “Keep up the good work.” Awesome! The only regret is that we never got a photo with the Nader, since he left too fast for us to get a photo.
Otherwise, today seemed to be bring-your-children-into-the-cult day, since we saw a zillion children going in and out of the Ideal Org with their parents. School-aged children, toddlers, kids in strollers, you name it. Like this:
Categories: Project Chanology