silverbear
Semi-Official Loose Cannon
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On the occasion of my 15,000th post... I noticed last night, as I was posting away rapid-fire on the Politics Zone, that I was rapidly coming up on post 15,000... I'm glad I noticed, because other "milestone" posts (5k, 10k, 15k), on this and other forums, have found me essentially wasting the moment by acting like I usually do, by arguing with one antagonist or another...
But I caught this "milestone" in time, and decided I wanted 15,000 to be a bit different... I have been reflecting all day on what this forum means to me, and would like to express that, though I'm not sure that I have the words...
Be warned, this is gonna be one long post...
I live alone, my nephew/roommate has for these past few months been staying up with his sister in Martinsburg, West Virginia, babysitting Christy's two girls so that she could take a job in a doctor's office... I admire what he's doing, but it sure does leave the house empty, LOL... so my existence is almost a hermitic one, I just don't get out much...
I say this not to provoke sympathy, it's the life I've consciously chosen, and it suits me... but like anyone else, I occasionally crave some human contact... this board provides me with that... it's for that reason, as well as my nearly 50 year love affair with the Dallas Cowboys, that I love this board...
I find Cowboys Zone to be the best Cowboys forum out there, even if I still participate in the festivities over at the Ranch... over the years, I discovered the Cowboys' newsgroup, and was (being immodest here) a mainstay, indeed a ringleader, over on that board... in its heyday, it was a glorious, rough and tumble place where anything goes... and as noted, I have long been a participant at the Ranch... I have also been a regular on a couple of other boards that I no longer frequent, for assorted reasons, those being the Cowboys Forum and Dallas Cowboys Central...
As I said, this board is the best of them... I say that even though I'm a little more abrasive, a little more "in your face" than is permissible in here, and I really have to ride herd on myself... I can't tell you the number of times I've made an incendiary post, just generally got medeival on some poster, then read it before posting it, and with a sad shake of my head deleted the flamage... this is the kind of behavior that was accepted, even admired on the Cowboys' newsgroup, and to a lesser extent, on the Ranch...
But the rules in here are a bit less tolerant of such things, which is the source of my difficulties... I can admit that I've had 4 different infractions in here over the years, and as recently as this morning had a PM from WoodysGirl (I call her my conscience) warning me that I was skating up close to crossing the line again...
I'd like the mods to know that I feel bad about being a problem child for them from time to time, and I'm absolutely flabbergasted that those same mods seem to like me... let's be blunt here, I'm a first class PITA for them...
But even if the board dynamics are a bit restrictive for my tastes, I still love this place... first off, it's filled with good and knowledgeable Cowboys fans, but more important, it's filled with good PEOPLE... I have many people I consider friends in here, and the funny thing about that is I don't even know the real names of most of them... I hope to use this post to pay tribute to some of them, and I apologize in advance because I know I'm gonna leave some deserving names out...
The first person I have to mention is my favorite in here, a man I'm sure is a favorite of most of you... that would be the inappropriately named Hostile... I can't tell you how much respect I have for him, I consider him to be a true Renaissance man, a man with many diverse talents... in all my years online, I have only run across one poster who can compare to him in that area, a man named Olin Murrell from the Cowboys' newsgroup...
More important, though, Hos is a man with a huge heart... he knows what's important in life, and tends to those things... active in his church, a good family man, and a very good friend... he's also one hell of a raconteur, he tells a GREAT story... we have had some amazing and amusing PM exchanges over the years...
You're my boy, Hos... my life is richer for being able to call you a friend of mine... but I'm gonna be seriously pissed at you if we can't make it work out to meet face to face when you come to DC for the Cowboys game next year...
Next up is the lady I've already identified as my "conscience", WoodysGirl... one of the things I'm most ashamed of in my time in here is the ration of attitude I gave her when she first gave me a (well-deserved) infraction... I reacted with bitterness, just generally got ignorant on her, and while she got a LITTLE defensive, for the most part she reacted with a beyond the call patience and understanding... how she could ever want anything to do with me after that, I'll never know, but she never held a grudge... like I said, she tries hard to help me stay within the rules, behind the scenes... after dealing with me, I think she's now prepared for motherhood, particularly when her child hits the Terrible Twos...
Thanks for all you've done for me, WG... I know you never wanted to be my conscience, but I needed SOMEBODY to take on the job, I reckon...
Then there's iceberg and cajuncowboy... I list them as a tag team because my relationship with both is remarkable similar... we started out arguing politics, we don't see eye to eye on much of ANYTHING when it comes to that... ice and I were so bitter at one point that he challenged me to come over to his forum and talk my crap... I think our friendship started when I did, and rather than encountering problems, what ensued were a lot of interesting and stimulating debates...
I wish there were more hours in a day, ice, if there were I'd still be posting over there... you've got yourself a good forum...
As for cajun, he's just a good man... I think it's rooted in his faith, but I also think it goes well beyond that...
Guys, we've had our ups and downs, and some of the downs are not too far in the past (I know you know what I'm talking about), but I've said it before and I'll say it one more time, no matter what our differences, I value your friendship greatly... if the measure of a man is the friends he has, I must be a helluva guy...
Moving more quickly now, I have to mention some of the other staff in here, in particular trickblue and Yeagermeister... we're talking two really good guys, with whom I've had some enjoyable, at times comical, dialogues... Yeag in particular is a smart*** just like me, and he seems to especially enjoy messin' with me...
I enjoy it too, he cracks me up... then there's our resident old man, who wields a lethal pea salad but can never seem to get the young 'uns to stay out of his yard, good ol cbz40... I appreciate having him around, if only because I might be the resident old man but for him...
On the subject of funny guys, I have no idea if bbgun likes me or not, we've had our moments, but he's another who regularly breaks me up... I like his dry, sarcastic, but curiously whimsical humor...
I'm running out of steam now, but before I go, I have to mention my schizophrenic pal SummerisFunner/Bob Sacamano/ iRoot4Losers... like me, he's a devoted draftaholic, and he's also one of the all-around good guys in here...
As I've said, I just know I'm missing a lot of good people who merit mentioning in this thread, but this thing is getting to be as long as a Dostoevsky novel as it is, so I'd better wrap it up...
So in conclusion, thank you for being an escape from my day to day humdrum, Cowboys Zone... I've learned things in here, I've had lots of laughs... I look forward to the next 15,000 posts...
And for those of you who don't like me, bite me...
But I caught this "milestone" in time, and decided I wanted 15,000 to be a bit different... I have been reflecting all day on what this forum means to me, and would like to express that, though I'm not sure that I have the words...
Be warned, this is gonna be one long post...
I live alone, my nephew/roommate has for these past few months been staying up with his sister in Martinsburg, West Virginia, babysitting Christy's two girls so that she could take a job in a doctor's office... I admire what he's doing, but it sure does leave the house empty, LOL... so my existence is almost a hermitic one, I just don't get out much...
I say this not to provoke sympathy, it's the life I've consciously chosen, and it suits me... but like anyone else, I occasionally crave some human contact... this board provides me with that... it's for that reason, as well as my nearly 50 year love affair with the Dallas Cowboys, that I love this board...
I find Cowboys Zone to be the best Cowboys forum out there, even if I still participate in the festivities over at the Ranch... over the years, I discovered the Cowboys' newsgroup, and was (being immodest here) a mainstay, indeed a ringleader, over on that board... in its heyday, it was a glorious, rough and tumble place where anything goes... and as noted, I have long been a participant at the Ranch... I have also been a regular on a couple of other boards that I no longer frequent, for assorted reasons, those being the Cowboys Forum and Dallas Cowboys Central...
As I said, this board is the best of them... I say that even though I'm a little more abrasive, a little more "in your face" than is permissible in here, and I really have to ride herd on myself... I can't tell you the number of times I've made an incendiary post, just generally got medeival on some poster, then read it before posting it, and with a sad shake of my head deleted the flamage... this is the kind of behavior that was accepted, even admired on the Cowboys' newsgroup, and to a lesser extent, on the Ranch...
But the rules in here are a bit less tolerant of such things, which is the source of my difficulties... I can admit that I've had 4 different infractions in here over the years, and as recently as this morning had a PM from WoodysGirl (I call her my conscience) warning me that I was skating up close to crossing the line again...
I'd like the mods to know that I feel bad about being a problem child for them from time to time, and I'm absolutely flabbergasted that those same mods seem to like me... let's be blunt here, I'm a first class PITA for them...
But even if the board dynamics are a bit restrictive for my tastes, I still love this place... first off, it's filled with good and knowledgeable Cowboys fans, but more important, it's filled with good PEOPLE... I have many people I consider friends in here, and the funny thing about that is I don't even know the real names of most of them... I hope to use this post to pay tribute to some of them, and I apologize in advance because I know I'm gonna leave some deserving names out...
The first person I have to mention is my favorite in here, a man I'm sure is a favorite of most of you... that would be the inappropriately named Hostile... I can't tell you how much respect I have for him, I consider him to be a true Renaissance man, a man with many diverse talents... in all my years online, I have only run across one poster who can compare to him in that area, a man named Olin Murrell from the Cowboys' newsgroup...
More important, though, Hos is a man with a huge heart... he knows what's important in life, and tends to those things... active in his church, a good family man, and a very good friend... he's also one hell of a raconteur, he tells a GREAT story... we have had some amazing and amusing PM exchanges over the years...
You're my boy, Hos... my life is richer for being able to call you a friend of mine... but I'm gonna be seriously pissed at you if we can't make it work out to meet face to face when you come to DC for the Cowboys game next year...
Next up is the lady I've already identified as my "conscience", WoodysGirl... one of the things I'm most ashamed of in my time in here is the ration of attitude I gave her when she first gave me a (well-deserved) infraction... I reacted with bitterness, just generally got ignorant on her, and while she got a LITTLE defensive, for the most part she reacted with a beyond the call patience and understanding... how she could ever want anything to do with me after that, I'll never know, but she never held a grudge... like I said, she tries hard to help me stay within the rules, behind the scenes... after dealing with me, I think she's now prepared for motherhood, particularly when her child hits the Terrible Twos...
Thanks for all you've done for me, WG... I know you never wanted to be my conscience, but I needed SOMEBODY to take on the job, I reckon...
Then there's iceberg and cajuncowboy... I list them as a tag team because my relationship with both is remarkable similar... we started out arguing politics, we don't see eye to eye on much of ANYTHING when it comes to that... ice and I were so bitter at one point that he challenged me to come over to his forum and talk my crap... I think our friendship started when I did, and rather than encountering problems, what ensued were a lot of interesting and stimulating debates...
I wish there were more hours in a day, ice, if there were I'd still be posting over there... you've got yourself a good forum...
As for cajun, he's just a good man... I think it's rooted in his faith, but I also think it goes well beyond that...
Guys, we've had our ups and downs, and some of the downs are not too far in the past (I know you know what I'm talking about), but I've said it before and I'll say it one more time, no matter what our differences, I value your friendship greatly... if the measure of a man is the friends he has, I must be a helluva guy...
Moving more quickly now, I have to mention some of the other staff in here, in particular trickblue and Yeagermeister... we're talking two really good guys, with whom I've had some enjoyable, at times comical, dialogues... Yeag in particular is a smart*** just like me, and he seems to especially enjoy messin' with me...
I enjoy it too, he cracks me up... then there's our resident old man, who wields a lethal pea salad but can never seem to get the young 'uns to stay out of his yard, good ol cbz40... I appreciate having him around, if only because I might be the resident old man but for him...
On the subject of funny guys, I have no idea if bbgun likes me or not, we've had our moments, but he's another who regularly breaks me up... I like his dry, sarcastic, but curiously whimsical humor...
I'm running out of steam now, but before I go, I have to mention my schizophrenic pal SummerisFunner/Bob Sacamano/ iRoot4Losers... like me, he's a devoted draftaholic, and he's also one of the all-around good guys in here...
As I've said, I just know I'm missing a lot of good people who merit mentioning in this thread, but this thing is getting to be as long as a Dostoevsky novel as it is, so I'd better wrap it up...
So in conclusion, thank you for being an escape from my day to day humdrum, Cowboys Zone... I've learned things in here, I've had lots of laughs... I look forward to the next 15,000 posts...
And for those of you who don't like me, bite me...
