Hand signs mean what?

[Star*]

Hi there,

Okay it goes fairly well with you know who in my house. I dare not speak his name for being found by the board zapper. lol.

What does it mean when they hold their hands, finger tips together and form a triangle shape at the bottom. NO he is not in a gang - but I think that it is something because I have seen rappers do it - and now the picture I took of him for his my space page has him doing this <> thing with his hands. I have my (blech) suspicions that it is some sort of booty call on the internet - and since we've historically had problems with the porn stuff. - some of you may remember my chatting with an officer of the law and having a very compromising picture of a very sleazy woman pop up??? (still haven't found the humor in that one)

So I'm just wondering if there is a web site - or a text thing or some hand signals - because.....I took other pictures of him with his hands down and he used that one - and then i saw it on rapper stuff - so I'm thinking -???

Thanks

Oh...just so he let me know he knew some gang signs - he showed me the one handed W(cross 2 middle fingers) for Westside and then M (cross 2 middle fingers and put finger tips towards floor) for Metro - So I did BOTH my hands at the same time one up, one down and flipped a WM and told him that was Housewife for WALMART.

He was not amused . LOL I don't care.

[Sue C]

Hi Star,

I typed in "gang hand signals." Quite a few websites come up.

Go to the following website. It shows illustrations of hand signs. The fingers forming a triangle you are speaking of is shown. It means "mafia crips." It says hand signs are used by gang members to identify their membership or to antagonize members of other gangs.

http://zimmer.csufresno.edu/~haralds...ang-signs.html

Or in your son's case................I'm wondering if it isn't just the "cool" thing to do......pretend you are a "gansta" in your photos???? You should see some of the photos Melissa puts on her MySpace page. Pole dancing at a local bar that the kids hang out at. She said they were all doing it and just kidding around. I told her the photo was not appropriate for MySpace which she has public. Ugh!

sue

[Star*]

Sue ,

Thanks for the website - I looked and it is close to that but his hands are almost like he's praying with finger tips up and touching and thumbs together - like...years ago there was a joke about a spider doing pushups on a mirror...

I saw Kanye West do it at the Grammys - this is what made me think it had to be something pukifying.

And yes - the pictures that I get on my computer from young ladies are beyond disgusting - Dude swears that when you accept a friendship add me to your list - the pictures just come with it - is that true? Even if he rejects the friendship request to be added - the pictures are sticking to my computer. And believe me - it makes me want to write these women and say GOSH THAT WAS SO TASTEFUL - and I got to see your chattahootchie - Dudes Mom. I mean WTH?

[meowbunny]

Honestly, if Kanye West was doing it, I'd guess it was anything but "pukefuying". He's pretty religious and very anti-gang.

[Sue C]

Star -- I have a MySpace page. I originally made one 'cuz my sister asked me to 'cuz she and I could post pictures for each other and send messages. We each have our pages set to private. After I got my page, I added Melissa as a friend and her friends and my niece and nephew. Most of them, including Melissa, have their pages set to public which means that anyone can see them. They can see all the personal information about themselves that they have written and they can see all their photos. You can cut and paste their photos. I tried it as a test! YIKES! I tried to get Melissa to change her setting to private but she won't.

Yes, when you accept a friendship, you get their entire MySpace page including its photos. You also see who their friends are. If you click on their photos and their page is set for public, you can check them out, too.

I don't understand what you are saying about the pictures on your computer. None of the photos I have looked at on the MySpace pages come through my email. I can only view them in MySpace (unless I would cut and paste the photo into somewhere else on my computer). If your son rejects a friendship request, he cannot be added as their friend. He should not be getting their pictures on your computer. I think he would have to be putting them there. I don't quite understand what you mean or where the pictures are. Please explain.

If you want to check out more, you can make your own MySpace page and check out his and the friends on his page. It is interesting to see some of the things you find out. Sometimes it might be stuff you don't want to know, though.

sue

[Dammit Janet]

Does the fingers in the back show through the front? If so...Cory says...that is a STAR!!! LMAO! Cory also says he would bet he is just bs'ing. Tell him to add wifeymaterial as a friend and stick that pic up in his pictures to let Cory see it. That name is Corys gf. They will accept him.

Hey...this could be the start of a beautiful relationship...lmao!

[Hound dog]

I asked/showed Nichole what you described. She didn't have a clue. Guess that's a good thing. lol

I'm also wondering if he is just bsing. Trying to look cool and impress. Fairly typical for his age group.

Of course, you could let him know my nephew was quite fond of bsing this way, too. Made a trip to one of the major cities to visit a family member, was showing off how cool he was and wound up getting his **** kicked but too good. He was lucky to walk away from that one. And this is a BIG boy, intimadating to most everyone he meets.

[Star*]

Ahhhh. Okay didn't know about Kanye West - So I'm stereo-typing? My 'pologies. I've just had rap crammed down my throat, up my nose, and in my ears so long that I'm lumping everyone from mnm to Young Jeezy in a pile.

Okay - what I am getting re: My Space -

Dude has a page - he mostly likes to IM. Oh and Cory dear - LMAO - a star. he was doing his mummys name! But seriously - here's the beef.

He gets on MSIM and starts talking to his contacts. Then he'll get an email for a friend request (I am not IM savy so help me here) Anyway what he's telling me is that when he accepts someone to add them to his friends list - you get all their pictures - nasty or not. And he says you have to look over the profile/pictures and then accept or reject.

What I am finding is in my documents - under MY pictures - are very graphic pictures of nude girls/women. I found them in MY pictures which I promptly erased and I found a folder in My documents labled MySpace Pictures - and when I clicked on that - I found a whole bunch of the same nude photos and vulgarity.

What Dude is trying to tell me when I questioned HOW these pictures got into MY PICTURES with MY family - he said when you click on the email the pictures automatically download into your picture folders. I said HORSE HOCKEY. He said he has no idea that he is NOT downloading any pictures they just "get" in my computer. I said HORSE APPLES again.

I also - have no idea of how to go in and change anything to private or otherwise - it's his IM thing and I'm trying to be a good Mom and give him a little latitude - but I think he's lying to me and if he is - no more MS.

Also he would swear he was logged out - and every time I got on my computer a little box R.hand corner would pop up and tell me someone was on line - and some of THOSE pictures were just - well - I'm out of adjectives that demoralize young women. At first I thought some were like Salvador Dali artwork - but no - body parts. Ugh.

I've been giving him one hour a day on the computer and more if he does extra chores. But now my mouse is broken - and of course he has NO idea how it got like that. I have a spare - but now I take it to work with me.

I also have not tipped my hand to this little tidbit - but my history is being erased every time he logs off. He says MS must be doing it. Like I go so many places - but all my www. addresses are wiped out each time he logs on and off - I suspect he things hitting history wipes out the only way to see cookies - (bwah ha ha) so far - he's lucky - but he says that the cookie addresses come up with the MS acceptance requests. (I say BS)

What say ye? Oh noble and knowledgeable board.

And kanye if you are listening - sorry. But I don't see you giving up the rap lifestyle all the way for gospel. So you were lumped.

[Star*]

http://music.aol.com/picture/kanye-w...7-s296022-5758

There it is....

[Hound dog]

Well, I know with IMing on yahoo or msn you certainly don't get flooded with the other person's pics. And I don't think you do on MySpace either, or else My Documents folder would be full as Nichole has tons of ppl she talks to on there. I don't recall her ever saying she received pics when she accepted someone either, or IMed them. Now I know she's sent pics to ppl or they to her, but I'm pretty darn sure it was something they actually DID, not an automatic thing.

[CrazyinVA]

The only way I know of for pictures to appear on your hard drive, is for someone to download them. Myspace doesn't automatically download anything ( have my own MySpace page, believe it or not). I do know there is some type of "direct file transfer" protocol that you can select through AOL IM .. it allows you to see a picture right in the IM box.. perhaps that actually downloads a pic? I don't know. I do know you can set it so that you have to "accept" such a protocol (and I always say NO to those .. lol). Maybe MS Messenger has something similar? Just a thought. I don't use it, so I'm not sure .. you might check out the settings on it, though.

[Sue C]

Star -- I don't have MS messenger so I don't know anything about that. But I do know that when you look at people's photos in MySpace, they do not automatically download into your pictures album. You would have to save them to the folder...or like I said earlier you can cut and paste them into emails, etc.

Don't know what's going on with your son.
sue

[Dammit Janet]

The Dude is bsing you!

I have a myspace myself. If you go to mine you may be able to get into Jamies or my dtr in laws...some days they are open...some not. Im also friends with his best friends wife....and more country music stars than you can shake a stick at!

If I want to accept a friend...and mine is set at open...I still have to accept but I just click on their profile thingy...I dont have to go through all their pics. I can though. But they still dont download unless I click to download. I have to go in and manually save all the pics I want off peoples myspace pages.

[Dammit Janet]

Oh...went and looked at the pic you put up and Cory says that is a diamond...lol. It comes from some wrestler...Diamond Dallas someone or other. It is NOT a gang sign. Yes rappers do it, but it is harmless...lol.

[meowbunny]

You can have pics in the chat window but these are not downloaded to your computer unless you specifically do that. More than likely, he is chatting, they are sending him pics and he is accepting the view of them. This can download them but doesn't specifically say it is a download, just says it is opening the file. So, don't know how puter savvy Dude is so he might actually be semi-innocent. Would he abide by the rule that he is to not accept any pics under any circumstances? Yeah, I know, wishful thinking.

As to Kanye West, yes, you're stereotyping. He really is one of the good guys on top of having incredible talent. He has a big mouth and says some incredibly stupid things (like Bush being rascist because of the way FEMA handled the rebuilding of New Orleans -- not sure he was wrong but he wording wasn't all that wise). His ego is certainly healthy. At the same time, he would never do anything to shame his mother either before or after her death. He did drop out of college but speaks frequently about the need for education and, the last I heard, was either considering or applying for re-admission to his university. I'm lucky that I actually like hip hop and rap but I do listen to the words carefully and try to know a little about the rappers just so I can have intelligent discussions about them with my daughter. Makes things a lot easier here.

Okay, back to the subject at hand. I'd give him one more chance after telling flat out he is not to "accept" any photos no matter who is sending them during chats. Then I would delete every objectionable photo I found. I'd then let him use the computer and if another photo showed up, he'd lose all user rights to any computer I owned.

I would also be obnoxious enough to discuss each and every picture before I deleted them. The discussion would be an explanation why each photograph was objectionable with detailed discussions of the body part and it's physiological purpose. It might take some of the fun out of it.