Oswald Rant: Friends….And Other Stuff – A Mighty Joe Young Rant
Well, hello out there in UrT land:) It has been a very busy month for me lately and so I have not taken the time I should have to keep abreast (no pun intended Oswald) of my regular columns here on the 6th floor and terroristz.net. Before I get started on this week’s topic…I had something to say about the recent brainless decision by our country’s top law-making officials…the Supreme Court. I am sick and tired of people bringing lawsuits against our City, County, State and Federal institutions regarding our Nations Flag and religious beliefs.
This Nation was founded by men who spilled blood in the name of God and his teachings, by women who fought and bled and died by their side in the expansion of the new republic, the flag of our country represents freedom and justice for all, the Civil War decided which Flag represents our country: the Stars and Stripes.
The reason that anyone at all may challenge the raising of this Flag on a hill, in a schoolroom, on a capitol building, in any given Public place, is in itself the very principle that the Flag represents…Freedom…of speech, of action, of movement.
Do these people who denigrate our Flag and religious traditions think that if the “Confederate States of America” Flag was the one in use today that they would be able to burn, litigate, denigrate or otherwise defame the symbol of the greatest nation on earth? I don’t think so.
The very people who have died or lost loved ones over the last 226 years in the defense of that Flag, it’s principles, it’s represented beliefs ( The pledge of allegiance ) would turn in shame and loathing to see the sad way in which people have abused the privilege of their freedom in an effort to gain “15 minutes” of fame. They would be outraged to see our elected Chief of State go public with a proclamation of: “I will see to it that Justices are appointed who have a modicum of common sense”.
The ones who do remember what this Nation has gone through to be where we are, the ones who were born and raised here, the ones who hear stories of an Father or Grandfather they never met because of their heroic sacrifices for this nation and it’s Flag, the ones who travel to the bloody battle sites of Valley Forge, Appomattox, Bull Run, Shiloh, Antietam, Gettysburg, Normandy, Argon and others, these people who travel there to stand silent, in reverence, marveling at the cataclysmic conflicts that took place in what are now such quiet places, these our the ones who will carry this great Nation along in the patriotic fashion it so richly deserves by passing on to their children the knowledge that Freedom isn’t free.
I will always be the first one to slam on any individual who takes issue with my Flag and the Pledge of Allegiance, they have the right to do so under the Constitution of my Country, But by GOD…I have the same RIGHT to exercise MY freedom of speech on THEM!!!
So here I stand, If you don’t like it come knock me off my pedestal: opal3399@cox.net
Now, the real reason I sat down to this keyboard tonight, dog-tired and sick though I am, was to talk about something that never ceases to amaze me. I was chatting away with some friends the other day on mIRC, about some fairly serious issues in their lives ( medical ) when it hit me once again…”Who are these people?” I mean…here some of us spend hours and hours on mIRC chatting about everyday life with people who we THINK of as friends, but most times don’t even really know what they look like!
I was at work talking about a conversation with a “friend” on mIRC with several co-workers. It was half way in when I was asked where I had received my information from. Automatically I said: “A friend on IRC”. I think you can guess the looks on the faces of my co-workers, IRC was Latin to them.My Husband doesn’t hear the type of things I tell friends on mIRC. My really close girlfriend doesn’t even hear some of the stuff. There are days when I go to a friend on mIRC for advice and comfort instead of someone I know close to home. This really doesn’t seem abnormal to the community we are discussing, but if you approach an outsider with this information they will not understand how you could get so close with people on a monitor:)
The people on mIRC can also affect you as much as if they were a co-worker, family member, lover or enemy….I’ll come back to that last one. When I get up in the morning I check IRC to see who is on and say “morning”. My husband Gets a hello/goodbye if he’s lucky and coffee if he was really “good” the night before. When I get to work I immediately check to see if I’m up and running on IRC and once again…who’s on.
My boss is lucky to get a hello and NEVER gets coffee.
If I’m having a crud day at work…I don’t call my husband, I check to see if Dragonne{TRIAD} is on, or Speedfreak, or GMK-Slayer, or Vampyress, or Thnom-BaR, or Lt1, or HV-Spawn, Or SAB-Baked, or Gerbil, or Stryder, or Blitz, or gleam, or Lord Of Doom, or MF-Doom, or Nofear, or Vampirella, or CrazyButcher, or monkeybrains, or Mungo Zen, or Hornet-OSX, or roadkill, or insomniac, or Antitux, or spellbinder, or str8shot, or Krom, or Basilisk, or Kaine, or…oh hell you get the picture, if I’m desperate enough I’ll even hunt for Oswald, but since he is always talking about my breasts…I try to leave him alone ( find something else that requires two hands sweety:)
These people have become over time…my extended family if you will. At no point do I make a distinction between friends I see face to face and friends I see on my monitor. The fact that we have a monitor and keyboard between us can be an added bonus. I have made enemies who later became friends…had we seen each other face to face this probably would never have happened. If I make an enemy in the real world (as opposed to the virtual world which is IRC) I will go out of my way to avoid them from then on. If they don’t work at my company then the chances are really good I could never have to see them again right?. In VR I will inevitably see them again as the world we inhabit here tends to be small. I will run into them many times in IRC, even with an ignore command, sooner or later you will “Rub Elbows” with them again. Or on a Server, or on the forums.
Case in point…I hate RedArrow, he is an arrogant, supercilious, childish, insecure, borish, antagonistic, contradictory, dictatorial Llama…not to mention he is not a very good UT player. Yet…overtime, I have learned to tolerate him. I no longer put him on my ignore command. I don’t pretend to be his friend and we haven’t kissed and made up. He called for peace, and even though I never actually told him fine…I have let up on him. I can sit in the same chat room with him now and not feel like screaming, we just leave each other alone…it works. Probably wouldn’t happen that way in real life.
All this is just food for thought, just remember the first time you received a photo of an online friend and you were shocked at how they looked? You cant always place personalities to faces. The first time I saw speedfreak I was shocked…I saw his gorgeous daughters first and expected to see this really handsome guy….sorry speedy…the girls got their looks from mom:) Great personality…But did not look anything like I expected. the same holds true for just about everyone I have seen who I talk to on servers or mIRC. Everyone I knew for the last couple of years on Q3 and UrT thought I was a Fat Bitchy Hag, well…I’m not fat, but maybe the rest:) I really like to keep my online friends just that…online. I don’t think it’s anything other than the fact that it has always been that way. I don’t meet people online in the real world. None of my real world friends are online peep’s. And I like it that way. I will probably make an exception for the Quake-con this year, but that is even abnormal for me. And yet, I hate it when a day goes by and I haven’t said hello to all my IRC family:)
Well, that about does it for me tonight, Oswald may get around to posting this in a month or so…keep your heads up for that delayed Female vs male scrim coming soon, shoutcasted by Oswald, coordinated by UTZ|Vampyress, you can find out more on #female-male-scrim in mIRC.
Shoutout to UTZ|LOD, hope your feeling better hun. Shoutouts to all the above named peep’s, and finally…if I misspelled or mangled any of the names or towns or battle sites….my apologies…spell check wigged and no dictionary handy. if you wish to reach me for comment on this column…
mjy_vivian@hotmail.com or opal3399@cox.net Shoutout to my flyguy, Oswald for hosting my dribble and I will close this with a final paragraph….
“I Pledge Allegiance, To The Flag, Of The United States Of America, And To The Republic For Which It Stands, One Nation, Under God, Indivisible, With Liberty And Justice For All!…AMEN.”
P.S…..Just kidding Speedy….Your one …cough…good-looking Hombre!
MightyJoeYoung…]BaR[Vivian….Vivian
