Some of you might remember that I went on SDMB hiatus a couple of years ago after the birth of my first nipper and the fact that I could no longer access the boards at work. Well, on Easter Sunday, another 9lb 13 oz bundle of joy/inconvenience arrived in this beautiful universe of ours. And the generous paternity leave for baby Billy granted by my employer means I’ll be able to pop in here occasionally over the next month.
So, how’ve you all been? Any major SDMB events? Rest assured, I haven’t forgotten the mission statement – I’m just following it in real life.
Congratulations on the progeny, and I look forward return to your former excellent, thoughtful ignorance-battling form.
I’ll let others fill you in on recent SDMB [del]catalogue of disasters[/del] history. Not pretty, but there are great improvements on the horizon!!! [Father Ted] Now that’s sarcasm! [/FT]
Pertinent, though, is that the Chicago Reader has been sold to an Atlanta-based company called Creative Loafing.
You missed a big one, the SD had a lucky draw kind of lottery with a first prize of an all paid, two months long world tour. It was fantastic, but a bit strange since the actual winner didn´t claim the prize, there was a big sticky thread on all forums but no word from the winner, so after a couple weeks there was another name draw and someone else… hey, wait a second…
Congratulations on the arrival of the small human!
Yes! A lot has happened since we last saw you, and it’s all stuff you won’t have seen before - in brief (and from memory):
-A newcomer to the board surprised us all with a completely novel game-theory-related approach to the question of belief in God
-An accidental double posting (or typo) coined a new board catchphrase
-The most virulent troll was banned. The angry mob are now gearing up to pursue the (former) second-most-virulent troll, who in turn, is currently honing his or her game.
-Global warming was debated for the first time ever, although some people were suspected of not being entirely open minded.
-There’s some kind of political event happening in America, and I think there was a thread on it.
-A child or cute animal was harmed, and a third party expressed their outrage in a pit thread (some of which was misdirected due to poor journalism in the article they linked).
-The action of a moderator was alternately questioned, and praised.
-A person had a small problem with their computer. Helpful suggestions on how to use a completely different operating system were offered.
That’s about all I can think of for now - have I missed anything, anyone?
A political pit thread attacking republicans for being closed-minded religious nutters was started, which began a heated multipage argument in which each side painted the other with broad strokes until a moderator locked it for getting out of hand.
A political pit thread attacking democrats for being war-mongering Bush apologists was started, which began a heated multipage argument in which each side painted the other with broad strokes until a moderator locked it for getting out of hand.
A long-time member left, was missed, and then returned.
An MPSIMS discussion about an offbeat and potentially controversial topic inspired a pit thread denouncing the OP of the MPSIMS thread for it.
We got a new squid.
Anything I missed?
Oh, and welcome back, Meathead! Congratulations on a successful spawning.
Hey, hey, hey! Waitaminute! I saw what you did there! You posted a mention of new baby and no picture links! That’s still way against the rules, Mister! No cat, spider, zit or baby posts without pics!
(Really, any random baby will do. We’ll never know it’s not yours.)
Welcome back!
(Anyone lose an exclamation mark? They seem to be infecting my posts this morning…)
Good to see you posting again. There’ve been a few AI / free-will / consciousness threads that led me to wonder whether you were still lurking about. In fact, just a couple weeks ago I did a search to see if you had been posting recently, saw that you were still registered, and figured you’d make your (re-)appearance when it suited you.
Glad to see you active again, even if it’ll only be for a short time. As a result of the thread Free Will - Does It Exist?, I’ve purchased and just begun Dennett’s Freedom Evolves. I do hope that you’re still active if/when I start a thread about it.
Well, there was the incident where a poster became a new father and came in here to talk about it. Unfortunately, he broke the cardinal rule by posting without including pictures of the new arrival.
Poor guy…it’s a shame the kid’ll never know what his dad was really like, but hey, rules are rules.
You have no idea who I am, but I just wanted you to know that your Political Compass threads back in the day were a leading reason I got hooked on the Dope. So, thanks, and welcome back.
