Once upon a time, really not so very long ago, life in all of its complexity was often a pretty simple matter. You went to work, you approached your responsibilities sensibly, you did the things that made life possible, and then you and your loved ones enjoyed yourselves, because that's what makes life worthwhile. Just like when you'd earn money and then you'd spend it, you'd see no conflict between doing what was serious and doing what was harmlessly silly or funny or lighhearted, because the seriousness gave our lives enough stability to allow us the luxury of our silliness. To say that one ought to give up the latter for the sake of the former would have made as much sense to most of us as the suggestion that one ought to never spend one's paycheck, for the sake of being more effective at earning it.

That kind of give and take made sense. What has taken its place in popular culture does not. We have a leisure class of artists who hang out at events like Burning Man, and fly into a rage if one, say, talks about the dangers of packing cans of gasoline into one's truck, because such practical, sensible and possibly life saving thoughts are too "negative", as is your refusal to drop a little ecstacy with them. On the other hand, we have an army of corporate drones who will expect you to explain yourself if you ever get seen up on stage during your free time, or do anything else that the PTA might not understand - and there seems to be little middle ground left. Either one lives the life of a librarian or of a biker, either totally, fearfully responsive to all respectable complaints or completely indifferent to them all.

This ring is for people who'd like to seek that most unfashionable of all things, a happy medium, as one lives a balanced life. The ring is closed, strictly speaking, but I'll be glad to open it on request, for applicants with reasonably decent sites. Look through the homepage for Hermes Recroom, and you'll get some idea of some of what I'd be looking for in a page, but I reserve the right to let in any old thing that even distantly relates to culture jamming, or just appealed to me for reasons even I may never know. Go into Hermes Recroom and use either the forum or the list to talk about your site - as long as you can do so and remain reasonably on-topic - and if I like what I see, I'll get back to you. Please be patient as I don't always log in every day, traffic being as light as it is. I'm not ignoring you, I'm just living my life, something that everybody should do, don't you agree?

Nothing more to see here, so you might as well visit the ring.