Time to split the group?

[burtwitlin]

Guess that leaves me out. I prefer reading in IE 8. I wish they would use the OT convention though.

[Jack Stein]

Personally, I like to make sure my joinery is bad enough that after glue-up. I have to sand past the glue, past the defects, and deep into the new patina I'm creating.... Usually works good enough:-)

[Jack Stein]

Yes, I was deeply involved in those wars.(Dr. Debug mostly) If you were in any way, shape or form involved with coding OS/2, my hats off to you. Windows still hasn't caught up to what OS/2 was way back when....

[Steve Turner]

Yes, there's a wee bit of my code in the operating system here and there, but I worked in the OS/2 Developer's Toolkit area and most of my contributions were in the development tools rather than the O/S, and most of those were "Internal Use Only". I wrote the replacement for Microsoft's "MASM" macro assembler (it was called "ALP"), and that was released in the Toolkit but it never got much of a foothold. I also have code in the old make utility (NMAKE), linker (LINK386 and ILINK), and resource compiler (RC). All fun stuff. :-)

[nailshooter41]

Oprah: Thanks for joining us today audience. Our guest today is Doughboy. Hello, Doughboy. How are you?

DB: Well, not good Oprah. I like to participate on a certain internet venue and recently I felt like I was disrespected by a mean man. He reminded me of my first husband, he was awful.

Oprah: What did he do, Doughy? Did he single you out for some reason?

DB: No...

Oprah: Did he make reference to something you said to make you think he was talking about you specifically?

DB: Well, no... but I am pretty sure he was!

Oprah: You don't think you are being a bit touchy here, do you?

DB: Well, it is about that time, but still, I think he was actually thinking of me when he wrote a mean post. I didn't like it one bit. (Starts to tear up... Oprah mugs for the camera and hand DB a tissue)

Oprah: I need to understand this. He didn't call you out by name, didn't reference anything in particular that you said, but you think he may be talking to you? Hmmmm.... why?

DB: I feel like the victim here. Oprah,

Oprah: Hmmmm.... OK.....

DB: So I finished reading his whole post (it took three tries because of the pain it caused me) and I told that meanie

Oprah: Good! Good! You shouldn't be the victim here, even if you were the one that made yourself one! That's a great response, too. Very intelligent. We need more like you to stand up and say "we aren't going to be victims anymore, even if we weren't in the first place!"

Sometimes you have to take an issue, make it your own and personalize it order to feel like a victim. It is more difficult when dealing with global statements, but it can be done.

This is a VERY important step if you are trying to feel bad about something that was said to a large audience that didn't mention you by name or anything you said.

Since you made it your issue you can respond personally to an individual (even if it wasn't aimed specifically at you) to an issue in a self righteous manner without feeling like an idiot.

You know Dough, sometimes I want to tell people to go f*ck themselves, but I might lose a sponsor.

DB: I wish I was a strong and smart as you Oprah.

Oprah: Not many are, honey. I just have a quick question to clarify this for me. Are you sure you were the intended target of his gibes?

DB: I can't really be sure since he never referenced me personally. Nor anything I have ever said. But a lot of what he said fit me so well, who else could he be talking about? It has to be me! That's why I said that mean thing back, I wasn't sure it was, not positively anyway, but I had to do something in case it was.

Oprah: Well Doughy, if the shoe fits, I dunno... I guess you might think ummm... errrr....

DB: (Now in tears) You don't understand Oprah. All I want to do is to say what I want about whatever I want when I want. I know that internet venue has a theme, but I don't think I should have to pay attention to it.... I don't care what anyone else thinks.

If they get upset by what I say, then they should do a bad thing to themselves too!

Oprah: And if someone posts something YOU don't like, even if it wasn't pointed specifically at you?

DB: I can't stand it!! Well, as I told you, I told this mister to go f*ck himself. Not really I guess, I get shy on the internet and didn't want to post the "F" bomb. But "screw yourself" really is the weasel way of saying "f*ck yourself". It just sounds nicer. You know it kinda makes me sound like I have class.

Oprah: I don't know Dough. It sounds like you should go home, light some candles, have a nice, long a bubble bath. It always helps me. That, and a little Barry Manilow.

DB: Thanks, Oprah. You are probably right.

Oprah smiles. Another one saved.

Oprah: We'll be right back after a word from Vagisil for men. If you have sand in your mangina, there's nothing finer than Vagisil.

Fade to commercial....

[Elrond Hubbard]

" [e-mail]" wrote in news:86e32fda- [e-mail]:

This one needs to go into the FAQ - thanks for the guffaws!

[Robatoy]

*applause!!!*

[Larry Jaques]

On Fri, 2 Apr 2010 00:16:00 -0700 (PDT), the infamous " [e-mail]" scrawled the following:

My mangina is smiling.

-- It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change. -- Charles Darwin

[tommyboy]

I'll do my best to never provoke you. Thanks.