Empathy, Compassion, and "Walking in Another's Shoes" on A2K

wheres that picture that Timber posted showing a hassenpfeffer mit Zweibelen.?

First of all, this entire thing IS about you. You took your sweet time about getting here.

Second, I said I could be wrong. But I remember other stuff that's not there. What can I tell ya?

So I guess we're up to "Never mind."

Listen, oh forger of cunning plans, and devourer of turnips, you've always been a hairsbreadth (and bad smell) away from being lunch yerself.

Baldrick du jour, with kartoffeln and jus vinaigrette.

Dlowan, why mixing European food to typical American stuff?

HUMAN is typical American food?

Although you and farmerman have a point, snood, I honestly felt sorry for dyslexia. Roberta pointed out that some of the posts in question were deleted.

(By the way, Roberta and I are having a disagreement about movie trivia on another thread. I want to know right now who is taking my side and who is taking Roberta's side. )

wandeljw -Roberta promised to make me a tsimmes. What do you have to offer?

it does have a nice tone... puts me in mind of douche bagisitic

Phoenix, if you take my side, I promise to treat you as a "preferred member".

Hmmm.....................And what exactly does THAT mean???? (I am almost afraid to ask! )

Preferred, shmeferrd. I offered an entire meal to this whole forum. Phoenix just happens to be the only one who showed up so far.

trying to help.... there are black helicopters and someone from the CDC at my door.... It's early and I'm still working on my first cup of coffee... could you please tell them to come back around lunchtime?

I think it is hard to be a new person here.
But it's hard to be the newbie in most situations.
Like anywhere else, there are groups of people that have known each other for a long time. They understand each others quirks, tempers and jokes.

A newbie comes along, it takes awhile to get a "fix" on them.
Some members are going to be happy with the friends they already know and not pay a newbie alot of attention.
It might seem like a "circling the wagons" mentality.
Some members may be having so much fun, they don't realize how their comments will sound to a newbie.
And Some members, of course, are welcoming to anyone.

It's Life.

I understand first impressions.


I know this thread isn't about me, me, me. But this is how I'm feeling about life on A2K right now. I don't have much to say the last couple of days. I'm second guessing myself. I'm wondering how what I post will be taken. I hate that I feel this way. And I seem to have an albatross around my neck that I'm afraid will follow me into other threads and derail conversations. I feel guilty by association.
Yes, I'm thinking too much. I know.

s'ok, bou. There ain't no duck hanging around your neck.

caribou. Dont feel bad. Theyre generally a harmless batch but, whenever I get slandered and made a fool of I do silently weep in my small corner of the house.
I never knew that I had bad Breadth. People dont tell ya **** around here.

caribou- As an old member, let me say that in my experience, A2K can be extremely welcoming to new members. They also can be very hostile.

I have seen this same scenario over and over again, on jobs, in neighborhoods, in clubs. I think that the important thing for any newbie, no matter where they are, is to "check the lay of the land", before barrelling in.

What I mean is that one needs to learn the "culture" of a place, whether real or virtual, before coming on too strongly. I think a newbie needs to hold back, get a sense of what is going on, learn a little about the "cast of characters".

I am referring to what is known as a "track record". An old employee, who is well thought of by a firm, is more likely have a positive reaction when he posits a critique of the way a firm is run. That same critique, by a new hire, could very well be perceived as presumptuous.

I think that a person can generalize that concept to a virtual community.

Good advice, Phoenix. Remember Abuzz? (How could you not? ) I had signed up and was a member for at least a week or more before I dared actually post anything. I was diffident and awed by the intellectual acumen of some of the posters, the breadth (hiya, farmer!) of topics and subject matter, and the general atmosphere. A week or more -- that's how long it took me to take a deep breath and actually plunge in with a post of my own.

Then the bastitds asterisked the word "bitch" out of my first post!

MA- Believe it or not, I shivered and shook the first time that I posted on Abuzz, after just reading for about a week. I wrote some innocuous thread about some champagne that I had sitting in my basement for years.

Caribou- Often, you will hear "Abuzz" mentioned. FYI, Abuzz was an internet forum that was started by the NY Times. When the dot-com business tanked, most of the staff was let go, and the site was overrun by trolls. It was eventually closed.

Craven de Kere, an Abuzz member, who is a young genius, started A2K. He did, on a shoestring, what the NY Times couldn't. The nucleus of A2K was from Abuzz. If you look at the dates of membership of the members, the ones that joined in the fall of 2002 were predominantly from Abuzz.

So realize that many of us have been conversing with one another forever. Also, realize that most of us love fresh ideas. Sometimes we get sick of having the same arguments, with the same people, year after year!

Oh, no, I agree, Phoenix. That's what I was trying to say.

An example of a newbie, stumbling around without learning the players.

I once worked at a special event company. There was a newbie there that was annoying people by jumping in and acting like he was our best buddy forever, without getting to know us. He was annoying, and the turn-over rate at this company did make the "old guard" wary and weary of new-comers. That and we were an over-worked, under-paid bitter lot.

Anyways, this prop had to go out at the last minute and needed to be repainted, Jon and I were spray painting like mad. And the newbie was waiting for it. He made some inane comments, I replied something. I know the conversation ended with me saying "Bite me", which was the answer for everything in the art department at that time.

So, newbie goes back to the warehouse office. Says to the warehouse manager, "Caribou and her brother are mean". Well, the manager says, "First off, Caribou and Jon are not related. And secondly, I live with Caribou, so you shouldn't bother complaining to me."

Jon and I did look similar.

oh, I started reading the big forum, and not just the Marlboro thread around mid-December. Maybe before that, I don't remember. But yes, I did read for sometime and get an idea of who people are before I began posting.