rsmurphy wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2024 12:10 pm

Lu Zwei wrote: Mon Sep 16, 2024 9:28 am I love every single one of you assholes, even Randy who never acknowledged me here even though I think he is one hella great dude.

Excuse me, madam, are you referring to me?

Noh, you hang up!

Man, I said some dumb-ass shit. To the point where pretty much everyone assumed I was an asshole before they met me in person. Some STILL do. Shrug.

I'm probably angrier and more frustrated these days, which is an unfortunate symptom of the garbage country/world we inhabit. Happier with my day to day life, more frustrated with the multitudes of oblivious, selfish fools that I have to share oxygen with. I'm TRULY puzzled and saddened by 'kids these days' like never before.

Grateful for all of my friends here.

This is a funny one for me.

So many dear, dear friends I likely wouldn't know if it wasn't for this message board and by extension this scene.

That has enriched my life immensely.

I also have some pangs of...bitterness? ugliness? unfun feelings? over some truly putrid shitstains that I wouldn't want to be in the same room with occupying (or occupied?) the same space and are talked about in the same breath as shit I love. That bums me out. Also have always been suspicious of scenes in general and have kinda never been into that trip in general. But for the most part? Many lovely humans here.

Wouldn't trade my pals for anything, but occasionally I bristle at being grumpy about shit I have no control over and that ultimately doesn't matter.

Sunrise, sunset, all that.

Think I landed here about 2006. I discovered it from a post Steve made somewhere else (no idea where) and I'm guessing (can't remember) he made reference to this forum, so I thought I'd have a look.

It instantly seemed interesting, with some of the user names and the 'don't give a fuck' attitudes and posts of some of the members, plus the obvious left leaning bias appealed to me. And the humour - not just funny but dark and twisted sometimes, but often in an intelligent way.

I found Clocker Bob/Rick Reuben quite entertaining, though i know a lot of members just found him annoying and he definitely liked to push people's buttons.

What made me stick around more than anything else though was the insight into what life is actually like for you guys that live in the US. Being in the UK it's mostly just TV and movies that give an inkling but you can't take that at face value. I think my first exposure to what real life is like for some was through the lyrics of Chuck D - now obviously that's a small slice and from a particular perspective, but it gave a different slant than you would ever get from standard media.

I've always had an interest in how things are for people in different countries and this forum seemed to provide some insight into what it's like for people at 'ground level', if you will - threads about 'asshole cops' etc.

The one that stuck with me the most was about Chicago and the massive amounts of corruption not just with a few cops, but what seemed like the entire force and every public official and politician in the city. I might be overstating things here due to time elapsed but I remember it having a big impact on me. I mean, politics and politicians seem to go hand in hand with corruption to some extent, but the impression it had on me was that it was endemic, unchangeable and largely just accepted, 'that's just how it is' etc. (that's in no way a criticism of people who do shrug their shoulders, what you gonna do against a corrupt system when the perpetrators are armed, ffs)

Anyway, having also had the divorce and perhaps mellowing a bit (not politically though, I seem to be bucking the accepted trend and getting more left with age - Marx is too right wing for me lol j/k) I guess I share some characteristics of previous posters in this thread.


SALUT!

I’m a relative newbie so I don’t have much to add, but I will say:

Every single person and every single band on here that I’ve seen/met in person has been fucking awesome.

Love you all.

After 5 or so years of random posting and lurking, I shared here about my initial diagnosis. That was when I really got active with my 2 sentence posts. it'll be 13 years next month. This place and the offshoot living community has been a large part of my "adult" life. I've been given so much from all of it. Happily growing older PRF

The good part of getting older here is not getting 1/10th as worked up about stupid shit and never ending arguments. Wasn't there once like a 40 page thread about Trans Am turning down money for a Hummer ad, but how anti-marketing may actually be a form of marketing too? Jesus who gives a shit.

The bad part is not having the energy or motivation to Do the Thangs: go to shows or PRFBBQs, start up new projects, participate in the tribute series, etc. That obnoxious youthful energy is also what drove such things, and nowadays I'd rather just hang out with dogs and sit under a tree or something.

I could more or less just quote Ike's post in its entirety because it pretty much sums up my feelings. I've made so many dear friends through this forum, and my life would be poorer without them.

I started posting here in 2003, when I was 24. I got here from the Silkworm forum. I think I was an embarrassing dipshit for much of my early time here. I wasn't a troll or anything—just young and not fully formed.

I'm 45 now. Friends from this forum have helped see me through some truly dire times, including the sudden end of a thirteen-year relationship, which was as close I've ever come to just taking myself out of the game.

I love y'all.

Hitting my twentieth anniversary here in a month or two. This forum has given a lot of joy, insight and friends to me. Books, music, film, ways of thinking and, most importantly, some dear friends. I was in India at the tail-end of a back-packing trip when I first turned up here; I'm now 47, a little more ragged, somewhat too busy/tired to write much here, but I still love dropping in. Salut, thank you.

I've been here 17 years!

This place means the world to me, as do all of you. Closing in on 53 years old....

Seems we've mostly all moved on from the edge lord stuff into a more considerate group.