Robin, I might as well be honest

[TripletDaddy]

An excellent point. I'm not sure; maybe you can supply that information.

Look, all I'm saying is that we may benefit from a clearing of the air. I'm not saying people should post their personal information, but maybe if someone made a disparaging comment about another poster and now feels bad about it, they should come forward to clear their conscience.

If you recall, I have made my share of mean-spirited posts and even apologized for some of them. It has made me a better poster, I believe.

nobody feels bad about making fun of you.

in fact, we are talking about it right now in the private forum.

lol!

[TripletDaddy]

That's why when a new message board is created, I immediately register so nobody else will steal my persona.

SMACKDOWN!!!!

[Tex]

And here I was assured that only respectful people are admitted to the club.

[Colly Wolly]

All this crypt fuss is nerdy as hell. These are internet message boards people!!! Who gives a shit?

[wuapinmon]

[QUOTE=Colly Wolly;110104]All this crypt fuss is nerdy as hell. These are internet message boards people!!! Who gives a shit?[/QUOTE]

People who ask, "Who gives a shit?"

[Colly Wolly]

[QUOTE=wuapinmon;110374]

All this crypt fuss is nerdy as hell. These are internet message boards people!!! Who gives a shit?[/QUOTE]

People who ask, "Who gives a shit?"

Nah. Go tend to your boils. That's the stuff I care about.

[wuapinmon]

This is what you say:

[QUOTE=Colly Wolly;110380]

Nah. Go tend to your boils. That's the stuff I care about.

This is what I think of:

You are SO beautiful, my Baron. Your skin, love to me. Your diseases lovingly cared for, for all eternity.

[creekster]

You are SO beautiful, my Baron. Your skin, love to me. Your diseases lovingly cared for, for all eternity.

Great book, not such a good movie.

[dabrockster]

Mercutio,

First, in case nobody reads beyond this point, I want to say unequivocally that I have NEVER posted pornographic images on Mike's photoblog comments. Mike and I run the same photoblog software, and my comments have been attacked by porno-spam-bots. I suspect that this happened to Mike. and then the paranoia took over. There might be a slim possibility that he is talking about a time I collaged a photo of his with a page from a medical reference book, but if that is "gay porn" in his book, he needs to get out of the house a little more often.

-------------------------------------------

As prone as I might be to hijack an unrelated post and make it about me, I feel more than a bit uncomfortable when I am the subject from the beginning.

I will try not to be overly defensive, because I really don't want my presence on this board to be about me and Mike. Until this moment I was quite happy with the idea that I might be able to make a fresh start here. But here goes:

Mike was my best friend, a room mate, a witness at my wedding, and the godfather of my only child. When I first started to express doubts to him about the LDS religion, he became increasingly critical, angry and mean. He told me that my apostasy was causing him too much pain. Our friendship was over, but I just didn't know it yet. That was the backdrop of what was going on when I joined CG.

I could go on (I just deleted a paragraph). My introduction to many of you coincided with the collapse of my faith, the betrayal of a best friend (though I accept some blame for this too), professional issues (I won't go into), and the family shit that any lifer-Mormon will experience if he or she decides to take a look at the world from the other side of faith.

So I joined CG with all of this epic stuff going on, and something happened -- I actually started to have a really good time, and I enjoyed the community and I enjoyed the quality of the conversations, and I was having fun. So as weird at that may be, it is a strangeness that plenty of folks here understand. I caught the CG bug.

When I got banished from CG I was really pissed. After the fog lifted, I realized I was just kind of sad that I could no longer participate. I wished that I could, and on three different occasions, there were topics that interested me enough that I invented a pseudonym so that I could join in. The 'characters' were never more than thinly veiled versions of me. It was never about fooling anyone. It was just about participation. That is why with the fourth 'character,' Rogan, I used my own real first name. That was supposed to be a good will token, a promise to behave decently, and put my REAL name and reputation out there, in spite of the hostile environment. Thanks to Mike's good sense in banning me there, Googling my real name doesn't result in a laundry list of taunts and slurs on CG.

So yes, I had problems with the Crypt. I liked CG, but I had this sinking feeling that Mike was undermining my efforts to contribute from behind the crypt door. He was. When Mike accidentally left the door open, I took a look around. I didn't "download" more than 2000 messages. I did a text search for "robin" and "finderson" and copied those. The contents were sickening. I had joined CG for fun and to make friends, but it turned out that my one-time-best-friend was making me the butt of a giant joke, behind my back. People that treated me like a friend outside of the crypt were talking badly about me behind the closed door. That really sucked.

-------------------------

Enough of that.

Gidget, I'm sorry that I give you a bad vibe. Maybe I won't after a bit. Honestly, I'm just a simple dad, the father of bright well adjusted nine-year-old, a content husband in a happy, devoted, 13-year-old marriage. I like to camp and hike and fish. I teach digital 3D modeling courses at an art school. My students think I am a pretty good teacher (though none have bothered to rate me yet on that 'rate-my-teacher' web page). My favorite shows are The Wire, 30 Rock, and The Office (which is getting better again after a dull 2nd season). I still call U2 my favorite band, even though that stopped being cool a long time ago, but I recently got a subscription to E-Music, which has a lot of really cool indie-label stuff.

My point and my challenge to all -- see what happens when you take Mike Waters out of the Robin equation. I just don't have any animosity toward him any more. It wore me out and I'm done with it.

So who art thou Mercutio?

I knew you during your time on Cougarboard. I really enjoyed your posts and I think it was at that time you began to question your faith or make that change.. The Burning Tree discussions were very interesting and I used it as an opportunity to learn more about that since I would never ever attend.

I find you very interesting and seem to always look for your posts..

When I read this, I am saddened by the loss of your faith, and a friend in the process.

Moreso your faith... Friends come and go. I have realized that and felt the pain of losing a best friend in such a way.. It was very hard for my wife and I to go through (She lost her best friend in the process as well). In fact I would say it has caused us to be much more reserved about who we try and befriend even though we long for a close "Couple Friendship".. Top that with the family issues that will come up when a member of the family chooses to leave the church (I have a brother who has chosen the same route, but he was pretty much inactive since High School).. That can be very hard..

I hardly know you but I feel sadness for someone who leaves the church. But I would still embrace them as a brother.. I always find you very respectful and enlightening.. I will continue to enjoy your posts..

[RobinFinderson]

I knew you during your time on Cougarboard. I really enjoyed your posts and I think it was at that time you began to question your faith or make that change.. The Burning Tree discussions were very interesting and I used it as an opportunity to learn more about that since I would never ever attend.

I find you very interesting and seem to always look for your posts..

When I read this, I am saddened by the loss of your faith, and a friend in the process.

Moreso your faith... Friends come and go. I have realized that and felt the pain of losing a best friend in such a way.. It was very hard for my wife and I to go through (She lost her best friend in the process as well). In fact I would say it has caused us to be much more reserved about who we try and befriend even though we long for a close "Couple Friendship".. Top that with the family issues that will come up when a member of the family chooses to leave the church (I have a brother who has chosen the same route, but he was pretty much inactive since High School).. That can be very hard..

I hardly know you but I feel sadness for someone who leaves the church. But I would still embrace them as a brother.. I always find you very respectful and enlightening.. I will continue to enjoy your posts..

Thanks dabrockster. I appreciate the shout out. One of the sad things about switching from an eternal perspective to a temporal one is that 'friendship,' as such a fleeting and fragile thing, becomes that much more precious. So, to lose a dear friend to preventable circumstances becomes that much more tragic. All that really matters in this life is to love and be loved, and as a non-believer, I sincerely believe that compassion for the other, if we can can grow mass culture around that kernel, is more than enough to inspire humanity's salvation from its own self-destructive tendencies. Coming to believe this only makes my own failure as a friend to MW that much more disappointing. I would way rather have him as a friend than have our experience serve as a painful object lesson, but there is nothing I can really do about that.