…with this OP!
It is with uncertain pride that I announce my 2000th post.
I have been a fan of Cecil’s column since I discovered it in the Boston Phoenix in the 1980s. When I got my first AOL account about 12 years ago, I was thrilled to find that Cecil had a home on this new interweb thing.
In late March 2000, I registered with this website. I made three posts over a few months, then never returned here again.
In February 2003, the Space Shuttle exploded, and people once again started raising issues about whether we should spend money on space, a subject close to my heart. I pulled my account info out the dim recesses of my memory, and started a thread about it. Since then, I can fairly consistently be counted on to chime in with facts and figures every time someone talks about the “vast” amounts “wasted” on space exploration, and most threads on the subject that I join end soon after my post.
I gravitated toward Great Debates, gradually spreading out into other fora (although I don’t spend much time in here, or in IMO, and my Pit presence is negligible). I really find this place mentally stimulating.
But when I first returned, I really just needed a place to vent my racing brain. My sister had just been diagnosed with the brain tumor that would evntually kill her a little over a year later, and as much as I love the challenge of logically supporting a position in GD, I have to admit a lot of the reason I come to this board is in order not to think about things that, at least part of the time, I should be focusing on. I’d have to say I’ve nearly posted my way to unemployment a number of times.
Come April 2005, I missed my last Charter Member re-up chance by a day, and realized I must be trying to tell myself something. I left the board, but gradually returned as amore and more regular lurker, until six months later, I signed up again. I just missed the give and take. I try (and mostly fail) not to spend too much of my waking time here, but let’s face it: I’m hooked. I could suspend myself, but I’d just lurk. I know I would. Part avoidance technique, part addiction, part admiration for the way the minds of my fellow human beings work.
I love ya, ya bastards!
