Goodbye...

[Lord J Esq]

Have either of you looked into pantheism? Seems like it's right up your alley.

I don't have any need for any kind of divinity in my life; it's just not how my mind works. I don't need what theism offers.

But! As you might be able to infer from my writing elsewhere, on animism, Silence, and so forth, if I were to be a theist I would very likely be a pantheist or polytheist. I already am, in a sense; I just don't attach a divine premise or any universal claims of objective truth to my thoughts on the matter.

It wasn't until about five years or so ago I became comfortable with the thought that I was, in fact, an agnostic atheist. I think a good portion of that stems from my need to un-brainwash the conditioning of the super religious, uber-right wing evangelical ("Pharisee," bahaha) environment I had been in for decades.

With that hair?!!! You were a right-wing evangelical with hair like that?!!! 

=P

But this would explain why we didn't have much interaction in the old days: I do not have a ton of patience for right-wing Christianity.

That all being said, I don't decry anyone for believing in anything.

Yeah, I've gotten a little more tolerant about this. Partly because I have other things to occupy my priorities, but also partly because I've realized it isn't as important as I once thought: The people who become right-wing religious extremists are likely to be bad eggs in most timelines / social contexts. The religion and conservatism really bring it out and make it shine, but, for as evil as some of those religious structures are, it isn't as fully their doing that rotten right-wing fanatics are rotten. There's a lot more to it, and, realizing that, it becomes unbecoming of my own philosophy to single out religion as squarely as I used to.

And who are we kidding: There's also the tired factor, as in: God DAMN I am just friggin' TIRED of the same shit over and over again. I've done my bit for king and country; let's have a new generation of agitators fight against the dominionists on settled questions of fact and science and basic human rights.

I know some highly religious people that are wonderful, loving, gracious people.

I do know some awesome religious people. But, except for some older people, I do not know a single "highly" religious person who is also those other qualities you mention. Extreme religiosity tends to function like a cult, and it pushes the good qualities out of its brainwashed exponents.

I enjoy meditating and tarot card reading among other things.

Oh golly have I got some stories to tell about tarot...tarot is awesome!

I grew up Catholic and non-denominational (and I would NEVER go back to non-denominational, long story) and just the older I got the more it didn't seem right to me.

That's a fascinating aside. Usually, non-denominationalism is the "civil-minded, agree-to-disagree" choice of Christian sects. If you're comfortable sharing, what happened?

I would rather be agnostic and be kind than be a Christian and be hateful.

Yep. Religion owns no monopoly on character, ethics, integrity, honor, or virtue of any kind. If it could but concede that one point, religion would be so much less of a threat to the world.

That's why I brought it up to begin with. Not that I believe the universe is "god", per se, but I have a deep reverence for nature that borders on spirituality.

Indeed! That's probably a part of why you're attracted to my work. We are very similar here. I come to this through my animism and world-love.

Lastly, I feel like I should say something on the conversation tushantin and Boo were having. As someone who has been that participant in that conversation many times, I notice a few things:

1. It was honestly one of the more intellectually substantive exchanges I've seen on the Compendium since my return.

2. It blew up when tushantin misunderstood Boo's tone and turned belligerent. I've made that mistake myself, and I would have appreciated someone capable of pointing it out when it happened, so I'm doing that here now. We should all expect to vigorously disagree with one another on many things. That's why we're not all copies of the same person. Now that most of us are in our 30s, I think we're all better able to tolerate such a lack of conformity and simply take an interest in the viewpoints of others without feeling the need that their views should become ours.

3. Tush, I don't think Boo deliberately refused to address your points. At worst he didn't understand them. More likely, however, is that, as is always the case, people have different things that are important to them, that resonate with them. (I mean, hell, I just spent two posts in another thread talking about my Fat Celes FFVI fanfic. No one is going to care about that the way I do.)

This lack of resonance in others should never be taken as a personal affront. This is a lesson that took me a very long time to learn; hopefully you can learn it faster than I did. Back in the old days, I supremely disliked you, but today I realize that much of what made me dislike you was simply a lack of paying attention to, and addressing, what was important to me. I spent a lot of energy trying to give you insight into my thoughts, and you gleefully ignored that and continued on in your own vein. It wasn't ignorance on your part, just distinctiveness, self-absorption, and a lack of social tact (each of which are qualities I share).

That said, by the very same token I think you could do more to accommodate the viewpoints of others. For whatever it's worth, I'm going to try and put my negative feelings about you in the past and move forward in this Bold New Compendium Era with goodwill toward all. It won't last long if you decide to be a shitlord here, but if you keep on writing thoughtful things and at least occasionally acknowledge the words of others, I hope you can trust that you will, in turn, be listened to by others, myself included.

[tushantin]

I hope you can trust that you will, in turn, be listened to by others, myself included.

Look, man, it's been a while, and I doubt anybody even knows me that well. I'm past caring at this point. The only shit I write for others anymore is if it might be useful to them, or if it personally amuses me. If you find it helpful, that's fine, I'm glad you did. If you don't want to hear it, that's fine too, just tell me as honestly as you can, and I won't have to waste my time doing it -- the time I can utilize on other things that are important to me. Like emailing clients (which I don't have enough of, and need to win over more of them).

Those who know me well are no strangers to the fact that I largely try to live my life on the principle of utility. Anything that serves none of it is ultimately useless to me. Including this post of mine as I write, but I just believed you might deserve a response either way.

I supremely disliked you, but today I realize that much of what made me dislike you was simply a lack of paying attention to, and addressing, what was important to me. I spent a lot of energy trying to give you insight into my thoughts, and you gleefully ignored that and continued on in your own vein. It wasn't ignorance on your part, just distinctiveness, self-absorption, and a lack of social tact (each of which are qualities I share).

Funny, I could say the same about you.

I really had no qualms trying to understand other people's perspectives in the Compendium before, having learned so much from Xcalibur and Syna on Tarot Cards, Satoh when it comes to art, some other members when it comes to mythology, Zeality when it comes to Atheism and the Stoics, etc. despite the fact that my primary personal beliefs aligned with none of those. I did not have to keep tying "Yes, I agree / acknowledge" for them to know that I understood them -- I simply built upon their statements with my own perspectives, and that was largely understood by everybody except you. And yes, I even understood you, even though I did not agree with you -- I instead chose to antagonize you because you deliberately chose to piss me off for no apparent reason besides your own ego back then, even if I initially meant no ill towards anybody (however, it seems like you've changed since then). 

Heck, I even tried to relieve tensions between Katie Skyye and Zeality bickering over atheism / religious people by understand both their perspectives. There's a reason nobody else besides you drew my ire.

You have to understand that I was very new at this sort of culture back then, with nothing similar existing in my neck of the woods, not to mention the massive cultural differences between us, despite which you chose to judge me based on yours rather than the integrity of my own -- which is, before I even understood what your culture was like. Unlike you, I wasn't very articulate either, so obviously I had a harder time trying to explain my perspective, many times which was (somehow) taken to mean something else entirely (for example: Sajainta's chimping out, which I now I believe i should not have apologized for nor deleted my post, because I did nothing wrong, but still -- back then -- thought was a mature thing to do, and I really did not want to hurt anybody; which you also conveniently used as a means to bitch about me to other people at least once). Back then I actually expected that somebody like you, who really liked to flaunt their intelligence, would have the capacity to at least understand what I'm saying rather than distort it and fling it back at me like a turd. Maybe I did not know how different intelligence was from wisdom -- you possessed only one, while I possessed neither save for practical artistic potential.

Weirdly enough, that's what FaustWolf did: Even though I was seldom able to explain myself well, he was always able to articulate exactly what I was thinking better than I ever could. So in some way he helped calm the extreme stress that you provided to me, while refocusing me back to art and helping me understand things that would -- inevitably -- also help me assess things and speak better. Which I sucked balls at. He also helped me learn (at least a little bit) how to deal with this sort of stress / experience, which was the first step for me to learn how to not be a fuckin' snowflake.

Honestly, if it wasn't for FaustWolf, I'd probably have quit Compendium pretty early, because the toxicity was really affecting me and the way I was starting to behave. But I don't blame that on you. Ultimately it was because I was too freaking weak, stupid and vulnerable, and perhaps I needed that bad + good experience to learn from it. If I were to go back, I'd probably slap my younger self, rather than slap you, for being so pathetic, and subsequently tell myself to man-up.

Now the question is: How far will you go to understand and acknowledge what I just wrote here for you, in the same fashion as you asked me to be accommodation of different viewpoints? If it's far enough, then I'm glad if we can be on the same page so we can discuss more important things. If you can't even, then I'm afraid this was yet another of my futile attempts at writing a wall of text that benefits nobody, not even me, and I'll try not to do that again.

Tush, I don't think Boo deliberately refused to address your points. At worst he didn't understand them. More likely, however, is that, as is always the case, people have different things that are important to them, that resonate with them. (I mean, hell, I just spent two posts in another thread talking about my Fat Celes FFVI fanfic. No one is going to care about that the way I do.)

This lack of resonance in others should never be taken as a personal affront.

Man, i don't really give a flying fuck what you and Boo believe. That's how libertarian my spirit is right now. I have no business telling you what you should or shouldn't believe (so long as it's not threatening me in any way currently, or as long as you're not my friend to be concerned about your well-being), because I cannot even pretend to be in your shoes and therefore I have no way of knowing what is even good for you. Besides, you two are adults. You folks should be able to know and decide what's good for you and take responsibility for it better than anybody else can -- and I think you can agree with that.

(IF it isn't a debate) The only thing I can do is to understand why you believe the way you do, and in return offer my perspectives in as detached a manner as possible (unless we're close friends, so I can call you a moron, and you'd know I don't mean ill by it). If we disagree on something, and if I find your disagreement to be lacking perspective, I will offer you that perspective and explain why I believe differently, and I will leave it up to you to make your own conclusions. Which is precisely how I approached my conversation with Boo, because if it earns me no benefit (such as, actual money I can have in my bank-account) then it serves me no benefit to try to change your mind.

I don't have conversations to change people's minds. I'm not a sales person, and I suck at the job anyway. And this partly comes from the fact that I have no master to serve in the name of any ideology or religion / atheism / cult, and I'm entirely driven by self-interest.

I've stated my linchpins in my conversation with Boo. However, I'll also point out that I do not appreciate being intentionally misconstrued and/or have my statements be taken out of context. I'm not belligerent so long as one doesn't annoy me with one's unfairness. Boo went beyond mere unfairness, often taking what I offered to him for consideration in good faith as a weapon to somehow make a jab at me in another context. I wasn't really expecting that, and therefore I consider that to be a betrayal of my trust.

Part of the reason he seems to have done this is because he believed that I was in it for a debate -- which I wasn't; I dove in to offer a perspective in a friendly, unstructured conversation without much forethought. I was more concerned about playing with ideas, while he seemed to be concerned about rhetoric / persuasiveness. So it's almost like he was trying to win a game that nobody else is playing. As ridiculous and hilarious as that sounds, I don't appreciate that. At any other place and any other time, I would have mocked him and made an example out of him for this, no matter how good at heart he may seem to be.

But I don't want to do it here. Because when I came back to the Compendium, I told myself I won't be having any more debates or being involved in further toxicity -- especially if that debate and toxicity has something to do with politics and religion. After all, it was this toxicity that, partly, killed the community here. That, and Boo has been trying really hard revive the community, so I can't allow myself to contribute to the problem by digging the community even deeper in its grave.

If you want to debate, if you want to fight, I'm happy to do it elsewhere if I can find the time to do so. Just not here. Anywhere but here. 

Other than that, eh, I forgive his transgression. He obviously didn't mean harm by it. I'll still be pretty wary of him though.

For whatever it's worth, I'm going to try and put my negative feelings about you in the past and move forward in this Bold New Compendium Era with goodwill toward all.

Like I said, I don't really care. Bygones are bygones. Sure, I may still be suspicious of you (and might be susceptible to be annoyed by you, which you haven't done so far recently except for a bit in your current response towards me which I can't be arsed to address right now), but I'm not the sort of person who holds grudges or resentments unless there's a problem that still isn't fixed, at which point I will hunt it down like a bloodhound.

So if you want to talk to me, that's fine, you can talk to me. I talk to practically anybody, regardless of what they believe or don't believe -- whether it's Nazis, Marxists, Scientologists, Buddhists, Jains, etc. -- so long as they are reasonable in their communication. I neither have the time, nor energy nor motivation to tell people what they should believe; all I can do is offer a perspective for them to chew on, and if they don't want it, that's fine by me. You want to buy my stuff and still believe that Sindhis like me should be sent to Concentration Camps like the Jews? That's fine, help yourself to it -- I make art for everybody.

Social tact doesn't matter to me either, you can swear your ass to the moon and be as politically incorrect as you want, as far as I care. But no matter who you are, there are still ways you can get on my bad side, which -- ideally -- is where you don't want to be. If you don't want to be there, let me know, and I'll tell you how you can avoid it.

Speaking of which, if you have the money and ever wanted an artist to collaborate with, hit me up. I'm reasonable with my costs (or at the very least, somebody you can negotiate with). Yeah, I don't give a shit if you hate Trump while I don't, I'll still work with you if you like so long as your project is benign and isn't too political / propaganda (I have my ethos too, after all).

[Lord J Esq]

I think I had some awareness, in those days, of how much I upset you. There's a lot you didn't understand, but which you thought you understood very well, and you were very much (as you put it) a shitlord about it. That annoyed me to no end, when in fact all I was really seeing about you was that you were young and headstrong, and trying to prove yourself and gain acceptance, and then rebelling when you were met with criticism instead.

I let my frustration with you become a choice to decline to deescalate the tension between us, which I could otherwise easily have done. I'm not actually sure I made the wrong decision, then--and in our arguments, I do not think I was in the wrong--but I will say that making others upset is never my desire and never makes me happy. I wouldn't apologize for my ideals, but, for upsetting you personally, I apologize. Not that you care, libertarian that you are, but honesty is important to me and I feel I should say it now, since I didn't say it in times of old. I could have behaved better. I too was caught up in the long voyage of growing up. I am glad other Compendiumites gave you a reason to stay.

I won't give you any trouble in the here and now. In fact I've deliberately avoided engaging with you until now, and, going forward, I will probably keep a low profile around you. It is for the best. But I'm sure I will chime in from time to time.

[tushantin]

Oi, I did tell you I come from a vastly different culture with little understanding about the world, of course it would take a me a long time to comprehend all the new stuff I was gathering, and I was already doing the best that I could. The information that was already flowing around in the Compendium was too much to simply "get it" instantaneously -- I needed to understand the foundations before I could make sense of the rest. And besides, I was only beginning in my journey as an artist, so I was also slowly learning how to take criticism properly. I just did not appreciate the way you made those criticisms -- like I did not appreciate Boo's unsolicited jabs at me in this thread.

In short, how can you or anybody expect me to understand the full breadth of your own comprehension while simultaneously trying to piss me off? Right now, I'm a bit more articulate than I was back then to suggest that you were unwise in the fact that you were setting yourself up for failure from the very beginning. And that's important, because I did not want to hold that anger against you, which is provable by the fact that I -- at times -- even messaged you in good faith, if you remember.

Doesn't mean I didn't understand you. For example: Yeah, back then I may have been very anti-capitalist (probably because of the historic Socialist influences of my country on me, not knowing it was ultimately Socialism that held economically backwards), I actually completely understood and agreed with you on the Capitalism and Ice-Cream analogy. In fact, I agreed with you till such a degree that I was willing to change my mind (which may also have been an important influence, considering I'm already pro-capitalism right now). After all, I care more about good information than a stranger on the internet.

The only reason I still antagonized you was because I was pushed to the point of resentment towards you, and let's just say I have a way of getting under people's skins (which is why I mentioned you don't want to be on my bad side XD).

Man, I don't seek apologies for somebody being who they are or holding the beliefs and ideals they do, I'm no judge and jury to decide that. The only apology that matters is for behavior. And you apologized. I very much appreciate that. Thank you. And I want you to know that I don't think you're some bad person or something (at least as far as I know you anywho).

So yeah. Chill. It's alright. Friends?

[Lord J Esq]

We cool. =]

And yeah, it occurred to me, years ago (after I had left the Compendium), that you had a much longer bridge to cross in terms of cultural familiarity and comfort. I spend a lot of time thinking about those kinds of things from a political standpoint, but I don't think I understood, in those days, the simple nuance of "this makes interaction harder."

I never deliberately tried to piss you off, for what it's worth. I was very intolerant of what I perceived (rightly or wrongly) as "tushantin's bullshit," but I hope you understand that those are two different motivations. Many people, in seeking to avoid confrontation because it is "unpleasant" or "unseemly," elevate their desire for passivity over the other principles whose defense they therefore decline to contribute to. Many people have told me over the years that they have "strong" views on this or that, but choose to keep it to themselves, for want of attracting trouble and bother, even when they would have faced no true risks or consequences in terms of safety or livelihood. I do understand the desire to avoid confrontation--I don't like confrontation either--but, in the end, I can't choose that for myself. To me, it's too close to being a fair-weather citizen. Conviction, and principle, require meaningful defense. And, so, upon seeing what I perceive (again, rightly or wrongly) as ill voices in the social sphere, I tend to be vociferous in condemning them.

Hence all my fire behind my arguments with you and others, back then--and I was less tactful then than I am now. I did not respect your conclusions, and even more so I did not respect your method of engagement, so I registered my contempt with you and everyone. I've always been willing to listen and change my mind, even if it can take me a minute, but I did not perceive the same openness in you, in those days. (I will leave it to your discretion to say whether I was mistaken! It probably doesn't matter either way.)

[tushantin]

Many people, in seeking to avoid confrontation because it is "unpleasant" or "unseemly," elevate their desire for passivity over the other principles whose defense they therefore decline to contribute to. Many people have told me over the years that they have "strong" views on this or that, but choose to keep it to themselves, for want of attracting trouble and bother, even when they would have faced no true risks or consequences in terms of safety or livelihood. I do understand the desire to avoid confrontation--I don't like confrontation either--but, in the end, I can't choose that for myself. To me, it's too close to being a fair-weather citizen. Conviction, and principle, require meaningful defense.

I get what you mean here, and lately (by which, I mean since the past four years now), I has occurred to me that often, for the sake agreement and social cohesion, a lot of people would happily ditch the pursuit of truth or even free-thought, just so that they don't cause confrontations with their fellow people (which may be wise to some extent), but also unwisely having to "accept" the whatever crap their group / sphere thinks -- sometimes to the point of vehemently defending thoughts or ideas that are not even their own. Essentially becoming a hollow mannequin for somebody else's cause.

This bothers me because disagreement (and not necessarily for its own sake), whether you're right or wrong about what you believe, at the very least demonstrates one's capacity to think for one's own self as well as the integrity of one's own soul. In a somewhat tolerant group, that individuality could at least be respected, but when you're in (or near) a group that does not respect individual conviction, then even the act of politely disagreeing will become a risk to you (because the group perceives that act to also be a threat to its own cohesion).

An example of this (and I'm going to try being very careful to make this example) can be seen in the political polarization recently. A decade ago (in India, at least) it wouldn't have mattered what political views you had or whom you voted for, you'd still be fellow citizens, caring for each other. These days, however, no matter whom you support, you apparently are a horrible person who deserves to die. This escalated to such a point where my brother, who isn't even interested in politics, found himself unwillingly involved in a fist-fight with a bunch cunts who couldn't even shut-up about how Trump is Literally Hitler over a chill-out-and-drink session, despite the fact that nobody else cares about Trump since he's not an Indian Politician.

Not to mention, a bunch of ideologues actively campaigning to have some of my friends fired from their jobs (and succeeding a couple of times) just because they found out that my friends held a different opinion to them, and not even because of any wrongdoing. It's gotten so bad to the point that the agency to even be who you are has become a liability, so I guess it's no wonder that -- besides those who willingly surrender their own agency to think -- even those who otherwise hail free-thought to be a virtue would rather keep their heads down because they have families to feed. (And don't even get me started about a couple of vegans once stalking me and trying to get my personal information so they could do something about me. Heck, I've got more horror stories where that came from.)

So yeah, I believe that if one is brave enough to stand for themselves it's not just one's own stance that they have to stand for, but also stand for the very idea of individual will, the capacity to think for one's own self, no matter how wrong they might be. After all, the pursuit of truth can seldom even begin unless an individual is given the agency and courage to at least take the first step towards it even if they happen to end up being wrong and thereby testing what they understand consistently; it's nigh impossible for somebody to get things right in a single leap. I find this ordeal, this adventure, to be a sacred rite of passage for anybody.

That doesn't mean group-norms are entirely wrong, however. They exist for reasons. While not being an exact example of this, I wanted to mention either way, hoping it may still explain my reasoning: While I still stand all for an individual's agency, I still won't get into any heated arguments in this forum from now on. It's not because the group / forum has forced me, but because I believe that doing so could seriously hurt the forum's growth while it's still in its revival phase. This is an individual's own decision to make specific sacrifices if they believe that it could benefit an entire group, and I'm perfectly okay with that, even if the norm doesn't have to extend towards anybody else. The only difference, in this case, is that I'm being honest about my boundaries -- which seldom happens in a group-coerced environment, where you are often forced to lie.

Hence all my fire behind my arguments with you and others, back then--and I was less tactful then than I am now. I did not respect your conclusions, and even more so I did not respect your method of engagement, so I registered my contempt with you and everyone. I've always been willing to listen and change my mind, even if it can take me a minute, but I did not perceive the same openness in you, in those days. (I will leave it to your discretion to say whether I was mistaken! It probably doesn't matter either way.)

I'll have to take your word for it, because I can't read your mind.

Though, even if you were willing to listen and change your mind, your standards for doing so still seemed pretty high (though, I don't think I'd entirely blame you, because funny thing, I've actually briefly been in your shoes, lol). Like I said, I may not have been the most articulate back then, but I did have the capacity to just put ideas out there for smarter minds than me to entertain and expand upon, and some of those were non-personal refutations to what you already had said (at least in the earlier days when I did not really think ill of you, and in fact respected you enough to even make those refutations for you to consider). Often times (but not all the times), however, your anger towards me wasn't because I might be wrong; rather, it seemed more like a Moral Fury, because you seemed to believe that I was justifying something morally abhorrent (which was a similar moral fury / discomfort Sajainta once showed me, oddly enough). Hence me pointing out the point about cultural differences (not that I like Moral Relativity, but understanding those differences would at least help people be on the same page before they even bother to disagree). I'd love to go into details about some of them, but I think those topics could end up being far too emotionally charged to reasonably discuss, and would (in the worst circumstances) force me to go against my code I planned to stick to in this forum.

So instead I'll give you this example which, to some degree (but not entirely) resembles what I'm talking about:

When you linked to an article stating that scientists were now certain that the universe was expanding, and I asked you how would they know for sure. Instead of explaining it to me like I'm 5, you instead snapped at me about my arrogance, telling me that I knew nothing about astrophysics and that I ought to go and learn more. You were right that I did not know anything about astrophysics (after all, I did state before that I've never been to college -- heck, even to this day, I've never studied in college), but what you misunderstood back then was that my question wasn't actually rhetorical, but a genuine curiosity, hoping somebody would explain to me what the article couldn't go into detail with, like a lot of other folks usually do. This seemed to have bothered you because you found science to be a sacred subject (what with sharing videos about Neil deGrasse Tyson), and you seemed to believe my question was a dismissal to all the hard-work and intelligence that went into the conclusion that was recorded in the paper, and inevitably in the article. Hence your knee-jerk reaction, rather than trying to understand if I had a reason to ask such a thing (remember: free-thought and all; and, since then, I have gone around to study a whole lot on the subject, including sufficiently about the scientific method, as well as the philosophy of science, to understand that expansion of the universe -- and I still, to this day, stand by my question, even though I already know the answer, because I don't believe I did anything wrong by asking that question). 

While, currently, I can somewhat understand your reaction, including perhaps your lack of patience for wanting to explain to a n00b like me (or maybe you just did not have time because you got shit to do IRL), back then all my simpler mind could see was that you were being douche. XD And because you kept doing similar shit, I wanted to pay you back by infuriating you just as you infuriated me. That was probably the very first time I actually started doing that sort of shit, and over time (that is, years after Compendium) I learned that if people have a reactive moral sensibility then one can easily play with it for personal amusement. Interestingly enough, these days I've gotten so better at doing that I can apparently trigger people by just saying Hello. Hahahahahaha! Life is great.

Okay, just so I make myself clear, in case you misunderstand me: I'm not asking for apology or any of that shit for this, nah, that's not the reason I pointed this out. That's not my intention.

I just wanted to point out two things by providing that example: 1) You seemed to want to know if you were mistaken, so I thought I'd show you that at times your actions did not reflect your intention; but that's okay, nobody's perfect and I've guilty of doing this shit too, so we can all learn from these errors and grow wiser, 2) This situation is far more common than anybody believes (me personally finding myself in such a situation with multiple people I've met), and sometimes can even go down a really dark path, so it's worth being aware of it just so we can understand it better and learn how to circumvent it when it happens. I mean, condemnation is all well and good, but we gotta first understand somebody before we condemn them for it, don't we all?

After all, if we don't, then when it happens we will Nazi that coming.

Eh? Ehhh?! XD

.....

*walks himself out*

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Welp, we've reached that time again. I love this place and have tried my best to check in daily, post daily, and enjoy the reinvigorated culture to the best of my ability (even if I haven't properly used Discord like I should). It's been such a fun, rewarding experience reconnecting with all my old friends and the process of making all new ones.

All that being said...

...I'll be out of town until next Monday and won't have internet access, so I won't be available to post.

[Mauron]

Have a nice trip, see you next fall.

[Kodokami]

You sun of a gun...

Have fun!

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Have a nice trip, see you next fall.

Next fall? Hoping that I won't come back for a few months, eh?

[Mauron]

No, I'm just assuming someone will lose their balance on Monday.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

No, I'm just assuming someone will lose their balance on Monday.

Oh ho ho! You punny. I lol'd at this, haha...

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Unfortunately, I am going to have to be away for about a week yet again. We had a death in the family today and I'll be traveling for the funeral and all that comes with it. I should be back this weekend.

See you all then!

[Mauron]

Sorry for your loss.

[Boo the Gentleman Caller]

Thanks. It's a sad situation and we knew it was coming.

It was actually my wife's aunt, who was actually only two years older than me. She and my wife had been close when my wife lived in the same area, almost like a big sister. She had been battling breast cancer for the past half decade or so, and it came back about a year ago and spread to other (vital) organs.

She leaves behind two boys (16 and 12) and her husband, who recently finalized the adoption of the two boys.