A2K Matters?

It's folks as great as djjd keeps me here.

mmmmmm ....... thinking .........

Not just kind, George. You argue well, and besides, are a good person. A friend of my dad's was a sub commander who went into the Jesuits after the war. I didn't know him well enough to even begin to argue, but he's a starter construct... not that you follow some model. He would be older than both of us, if still alive (my dad would be turning 102). In any case, I pay attention to your posts.


Ah, I didn't mean to say that I think of you as old. I don't think of anyone with a lively mind as old. Just that my dad and that friend and others were figures in my early years.

As do I on advice from a coot I know...

RH

Ah, well, that doesn't reread right either, unless you know I don't care so much about time with people.

Now it's all messed up.

That's part of what is cool about all of this, is it's mostly real.

Ima quit here now.

RH

Well I am old - but a tough old geezer nonetheless.

Funny, I went in to the Navy just to escape the Jesuits. (Only later did I discover that it was just about the same drill.)

I never met a submariner that I really liked. (At least that is one of my favorite phrases about them.) As an ex fighter squadron commander at the advanced age of 39, I was made to go through the submariner's puberty rites at Nuclear Power school (then a necessary precursor to command of a nuclear-powered carrier) - with a bunch of smart ass Ensigns from the Academy, Michigan, Purdue, Duke, etyc. The experience left me with lingering resentments for them. It was later reinforced when I found that every submarine C.O. assigned to me as an escort found it necessary to quickly send me a copy of his version of "the photo" (a shot of my ship taken through the crosshairs of his attack periscope). Finally we got one with a bit of imagination - his was a photo of himself, arms up around the handles, looking intently into the eyepiece of his periscope. The caption was, "Thinking of you". I suspect that guy might have made a good aviator.

Chumly - where did you find that post?? It is a great poem - a little-known work of James Russel Lowell's, named, "Aladdin".

My long sappy response.

I live in the boonies in a community which isn't all that accepting of outsiders (they're coming around a bit and I think I'm growing on them now) and A2K has been, not only, my social life, but the perfect place for me to get information on anything I may want or need to know.

Some of you I've known for over 9 years, going back to abuzz. I consider so many of you here my extended family and I truly feel that I would be lost without you.

My spelling has improved over the years and I've learned so much here that I couldn't even begin to explain it all.

When I'm feeling down, you all are an amazingly supportive and have given me the encouragement I needed to lift my head back up and keep on truckin.

I help people in any way I can and it helps me to feel good about myself.

I love a good laugh and some of you know exactly how to tickle my funny bone. I think Gus is the funniest man I ever knew and I don't know if he knows how much his humour means to me. I've almost peed my pants reading some of his posts.

A few people really tick me off sometimes, but over the years they've grown on me and I secretly like them too (I'll never tell them that though )

Yes, A2K has made me a much stronger and wiser person and for that, I thank you all.

The guy I speak of was someone high up in the Bikini bomb tests, unless I'm confused, but I don't think I am. Who knows, he might have been some kind of rep, but I remember, I think, that he was a commander or maybe 'the' commander.' Or maybe he was made a commander for the job. My dad was head of photo/AAF in his past and for the tests. I'd like to talk with them both now that it is much too late.

Ah, never mind, as that is not applicable to you. That may tinge my interest, because of Jesuit and other associations - but I'd'a read your posts anyway.

Simply a search to your first post, it may give perspective given your concerns about declining discourse quality.

Even though he stood me up in the rain, I have to say that georgeob1 would be sorely missed in the political arena of a2k. I don't engage there very often since I am not as gracious as George in accepting another political opinion.

So for what it's worth George, don't you even think of leaving here!

The first thing I think of when I contemplate what I've learned here that I hadn't learned somewhere else is the fact that it was at a2k that I was introduced to Vaughn William's composition for violin - 'The Lark Ascending'. I think Pentacle Queen first mentioned it to me - and my life would be less enriched if I'd never heard it.

The second thing I realize is that I believe that I've become a better and more confident writer due to the opportunities a2k has afforded me.

I'm also really happy to have been exposed to Endy's contributions and to have run into Miklos here. Both of them have been an encouragement and inspiration to me - Miklos in his willingness to critique and Endy in his willingness to share his own writing which I enjoy and also find inspiration in.

Mathos told me about Betswy Coed and Swallow Falls which is one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen. It's one of the first places I'll be returning to when I get back to the UK in July - coincidentally just around the anniversary of the first time I went there.
I wouldn't have known about that place except for Mathos and a2k.

Spendius has helped me with expanding my vocabulary and toughening my hide.

Yep - I think a2k has changed me for the better for sure.

Damn !! I am actually touched - and a bit embarassed - by a handful of warm responses, each from admired sources. I think you guys have - in very full measure - answered the question that is the subject of this thread.

I had a knee replacement a couple of weeks ago (correcting years of abuse from deep squats, running and accumulated injuries). Now it's several weeks of enforced inactivity & controlled exercises. So far, so good, but the inactivity is driving me nuts. (That's my excuse, anyway.)

I really was accumulating some dismay at the declining character of some of the threads here - too many loonies; too much name-calling and venom, etc. You have swept it all away.

Thank you.

George, geez! What a self indulging bloke you are!

Oy, Francis!
Here I tried to smear the honey big time , and there you go
and put out the vinegar.

Well, you know the saying, CJ, someone has to do the tough job..

Goddamm Frogs !

However I am much more comfortable dealing with such hostility (and its own peculiar family of motivations), than I am the honey that Calamity dispensed.

I will readily confess to a streak of egoism, but I don't confuse openness & candor with self indulgence.

Georgeob I wish you a continuing recovery with your knee surgery and am looking forward to seeing you again at the next San Francisco gathering. I'm due for surgery myselfn and the doctor wants me to lose weight. 15 pounds so far. Did you have to lose weight before surgery?

As I say continuing good luck.