Almost 4 months. What a long strange trip its been. At times I’ve calculated it out as close to 8.5 posts a day. Up or down a bit, but always near there. Every single time I’ve calculated. I don’t understand it. Maybe it’s of cosmic significance. Maybe my subconscious is playing tricks on me. Maybe I’m just anal. That’s probably it.
So I missed my 1000th post. I didn’t even know I had “wasted” it until I did. Which is fine with me because I’m not looking for any congratulatory post party with monkeys wrestling in pits of Jell-O while we do beer bongs races and body shots. I try to make all my posts useful, be they one line or a diarrhea of the keyboard like this one is.
I’ve been thinking about the purpose of this board. It’s all labeled under the heading of “fighting ignorance.” But let’s be honest with each other: there are a lot of things on this board that are anything but that. I’m not going to advocate that we stop doing it. Not only would I be pissing into the wind, but I don’t necessarily see a problem with it. I just don’t do it. I mean, let’s face it, you can’t fight ignorance every moment. Even Superman went out with Lois from time to time.
So I came here in September. The first thread I ever read was on embarrassing moments in the sack. That was a great thread. But due to me being Pathetically Singlesub[/sub], I didn’t have much to contribute. Then I read Homer’s Very Vaguely Creepy thread. I thought to myself “hey, I’m Very Vaguely Creepy! I think I’ll post.” So I did. After that, I was one of you. Kinda.
People don’t pay much attention to the newbies unless they do something so horrifically stupid that they stand out from the crowd. Kinda like pledging a fraternity.
I got my first post locked after I created a rant from the random insult generator. After getting called “concrete!” half a dozen times (and not knowing who the hell concrete was) I finally said it was a joke, lighten up. Boy those days were fun.
And I remember looking around the boards and thinking There are people here who have a couple thousand posts. What friggin losers! I even calculated how much time was wasted just pressing “submit reply” and waiting for it to post 1000 times. I’d never get like that. Now here I am as big a loser as the rest of you. 8.5 posts a day go by pretty quickly.
I also thought there are close to 10,000 people here. I’m gonna keep track of them all? No friggin way! Turns out it’s not that difficult to do. You can’t help but learn about who is who as you navigate the boards. You just remember things. Jodi’s a lawyer. Oldscratch is a bartender. Stoidela’s a democrat. eggo is missing a leg. Magdalenelives in Chicago. Andygirl is a retired Colonel for the Thai military. OK, so I’m still working out a few kinks in my system.
But those are just glib answers. While no one can possibly describe their entire life in 10, 100, or 10,000 posts, no one here is one dimensional. Jodi is more than just a lawyer, even on these boards. I’ve learned from Oldscratch a lot about a way of life I would never lead. Or just never have. I learned in that very post of Eggo’s that he can laugh in the face of adversity. He even started a very humorous thread on his handicap pass. I just learned the other day about how monster104 and spoofe are brothers. Never had a clue. Lots of things to learn here.
I just read a book a week ago on character and viewpoint. No main characters are ever one dimensional, ever cliche, if they’re good characters. There’s always a reason, a motive, behind their actions. There’s a way to get into their brain and think about what they think and view what they view and see things from a new perspective that you’d never have considered before. A good writer can make you sympathetic to the struggle of a character you hate. In real life you never see that. You have one viewpoint, your own. This board gives me 12,000 viewpoints to draw from.
And maybe that’s the answer right there. Ignorance doesn’t mean stupidity. It means you aren’t knowledgeable about a certain subject. Maybe “fighting ignorance” isn’t about spouting off the Bathroom Reader at every opportunity or linking to Cecil’s columns, but about telling about ourselves and learning from others. Every post we make helps others fight the ignorance of knowing who we really are. The more we post, the more others learn. The more posts we read, the more we learn about the posters. Maybe that’s the greatest ignorance that needs to be fought around here.
That was all way too serious. How about a joke?
Reporter goes to Jerusalem and sees a man praying at the Western Wall. He is captivated and wants to do a story on the man. So when the man gets done praying, the reporter asks if he can interview him. The guy says yes.
“How long have you been praying here?”
“Every single day for 34 years.”
“Wow. That’s amazing. What do you pray for?”
“In the morning, I pray for world peace.”
“That’s very lovely. What about the rest of the day?”
“In the afternoon, I pray for a safer, cleaner, environment.”
“A noble cause. And in the evening?”
“I pray for the end of ignorance.”
“How enlightening. Every day, you say? So what’s it like?”
The man shook his head and said “Oy. It’s like talking to a wall.”
Keep it up and here is to getting my 1000th post. (only 975 to go or so!!!)
