I lurked for about 5 years, and then finally decided to start posting when I had taken some time off school and had a lot of free time. I umm… I was quite the obnoxious-yet-lovable party guest for a while, but I’ve mellowed out quite a bit.
So, did you have an initiation?
OP, just be glad you don’t have to do the initiation that Autolycus did. His had the goats and all that, but it also involved a number of kitchen implements, a pickup truck and a few frat boys. It was not pretty.
I spent a year or so lurking before I joined up. I was only fifteen or so when I first found the website and didn’t have a credit card. It took me quite a while to work up the courage to ask my parents to buy me a subscription to a website called The Straight Dope. (They know the phrase straight dope, however, my dad is rather protective and wanted reassurance that it wasn’t an online marijuana distribution center or something. He’s paranoid about the internet.) Anyway, after lurking for quite some time, I read a thread where some crazy loon was ranting about how schooling ruined minds and then described a wonderful new invention of his that separates solutions into their components. It spun really fast and the heavier particles would sink to the bottom. The next poster exclaimed, “We could call it a centrifuge!” And I knew I had found my new sarcastic home. However, it did take me a few months to get over the unreasonable paranoia of getting slapped down by the mods. One of my first posts was rather rude and I distinctly remember lying in bed that night worrying that I had misread the name of the forum and that the next morning I would find a big ugly warning in my inbox. Now I post what I want and if someone doesn’t like it, I don’t really care. (The forum seemed bigger when I was younger and the posters like unto gods. I counted myself lucky to simply read among them.)
Thanks to all for making me feel welcome.
The initiation was certainly ummmm interesting.
The physical injuries should be cleared up in a week or two.
I suspect emotional scars will last a lifetime.
When I was in middle school back in the dark time known as the eighties, I had a friend whose font of knowledge includded such interesting facts as the physical design of porcine penises and their duration of orgasm as well as the probable caloric content of semen. I was some scant few years ago that I discovered that Cecil was the source of this information and, having purchased all the books for my darling Ms. Kuboydal, a hopeless romantic am I, I was forced to join the Dope after following Mafia 3 so that I could interject snarky comments in the MPSIMS.
Plus, after 14 years as a vegetarian, I now eat bacon. It is well known the the Dope is a leading investigator in the dark arts of bacon research and development.
I used to read the column and had one of the books. So one day, having gotten bored with The Onion and Snopes, I decided to see if the columns were on-line. Famous last words. My first post was about the column on “Blinded by the Light” and like a doofus noob I didn’t link to the column in question. So the only response was a reminder to that effect. I’ve learned a lot and had my attitude changed through these boards.
I also never had to deal with the squid and the secret room.
At least you’ll have your squid to keep you company.
::shifts weight to other leg and continues to stare, right eye twitching a bit::
Ha! Your initiation has not even begun!