With all due respect, I doubt any members are conpsiring against you. If so, shame on me for this post.
That's not what Jim said. He said Geek and Gull were trying to publicly humiliate me. I just said I was hoping that was not the case. If you say it isn't, then hopefully it isn't. Others certainly perceive I have been attacked. So I don't think I'm engaging in delusional thinking. I have tried to be moderate in my responses, but, like Jim, I'm kind of sick of it. I'm also sick of people picking on Jim too. I think we should all agree to disagree about the topic of posting and use the NSR designation wherever applicable.
Jim, I don't see how "cowardly piece of ****" can be taken out of context, but you're more than welcome to post your pm in it's entirety. Unfortunately, I've already deleted my copy. From my perspective, your response was unprovoked and inexcusable.
Leslie, as I posted previously, I most certainly was not attacking you personally. Lindsay understood my intention quite clearly. I am duly impressed with your top ten rankings, of which I obviously have none. Likewise, I am confident that your team's workouts are intense and challenging. Rest assured that I will take you up on your invitation and drop in for a workout if I am in your area (as I have done with Masters teams in Boston, Phoenix, Chicago, and of course Austin). Saturday just wasn't feasible.
Hope to see my forum friends at the Woodlands this summer or in Austin next spring. Happy swimming. I'm out.
Sorry for misinterpreting jsmwnbc. I guess it's that lack of tonal ring thing. At least you're trying to be funny for all our sakes. I've clearly lost my sense of humor.
Interesting...the word duly is not really one that was intended for sarcasm.
Were I looking to say something sarcastic in this instance I might say something like "your top 10's make me question my own existence", or "your top 10's probably have Natalie Coughlin running for cover". Hey, maybe it was serious and maybe it wasn't. Either way, does it really make much difference?
Not anymore. We all should have taken Peter's advice.
Everyone's sarcasm is different. Like me, Caped is a lawyer. In a court of law, the word "duly" is used as in "duly noted." It's a curt way to respond to someone or put them in their place.
If I misinterpreted the post, Gull can PM me and I will personally apologize to him.
On a slightly humorous note, since I'm not completely beyond salvaging, I will say that I like Big Boy better than Balance.
Since we aren't ready to all hold hands and join in a chorus of Kumbaya ... I think we all need to take a deep breath and back the heck off of each other. Tone is very hard to understand on the internet. I very much hope Geek was trying to recognize Fort's amazing swimming abilities and not trying to be rude or sarcastic. Like Ms. Scarlet I'm going to defend her because I think she's awesome. Obviously lots of people here do.
As for the PM issue I think the proper course of action would have been to report the post rather than bring it into the forums. That was unecessary regardelss of whether or not you were offended or thought it was inappropriate.
I think we all want the same thing, to have a place where we can talk about something we are all passionate about with others. When conversation deviates from swimming that should be viewed as a normal part of developing relationships. That's where the bonds form.
Kumbaya my Lord, Kumbaya ... ;)
FINAL POSTING!!!!
PLEASE DON'T READ ANY FURTHER IF YOU ARE OFFENDED BY GARMENTRY!!!
WHAT IS ABOUT TO COME IS VERY CLOSE TO NSR, WHICH I ASSUME MEANS NON-SWIMMING RELATED; IT IS PERHAPS 1-8 PERCENT SWIMMING RELATED AT BEST, SO----FAIR WARNING; DON'T READ ANOTHER SINGLE SOLITARY SYLLABLE IF YOU THINK YOU MIGHT BE OFFENDED BY GARMENTRY THAT IS ONLY 1-8 PERCENT SWIMMING RELATED.
(ps SORRY TO USE ALL CAPS HERE, WHICH I'VE READ IS THE EQUIVALENT OF SHOUTING!!!!!!!)
Okay, so I doubt anybody in their right mind is reading at this point, but I simply must share a true story that happened at our practices last Wednesday and Friday.
A very attractive female swimmer--let us call her, for the sake of anonymity, Ursula--came over to me after our workout. Ursula was wearing a very pretty though thick brown sweater and blue jeans. She said, "Please don't take this wrong, but I just have to tell someone, and there were no women in the lockerrroom."
She proceeded to explain that she had bought a new swim suit earlier in the day and decided to just wear it under her clothes to practice. I don't fully understand the logistics here, she must have stopped off at home first and dropped some items off and whatnot. But anyhow, after practice, she started to get dressed and she realized she had no underwear.
"I'm not wearing any underwear," she told me.
The feelings this confession provoked in me were definitely NSR, but we won't go into them here.
Anyhow, she said she had to meet a friend at Starbucks and said she hoped her sweater would be enough to prevent any appearance of impropriety. I asked if it was a male or female friend, and she said female, and moreover her friend was chestally gifted. I said that in my opinion, it was no big whoop.
On Friday, our team had decided to go out to a Caribbean restaurant after practice. It was a BYOB place, and so a bunch of the non teetotalers (which I used to be, sadly, am no more) decided to bring really good/exotic beers.
Ursula later confessed to me a Post-It note she had written herself Friday morning so she wouldn't forget.
It read simply: "Bring Delerium and underwear."
(Explanatory note: Delerium Tremens is a brand of beer.)
(At this point, I made an additional comment, referring to a brand of carbohydrate gel Ursula had earlier given me to help prevent hypoglycemic attack mid practice. The product's name, and double entendre overtones, truly do not belong in here, so I shall leave this detail out pending my re-writing of the whole episode, with some poetic license, for resale to the kind of periodical where such anecdotes are a staple.)
Post Script:
On Friday after practice, Ursula got dressed in what I can only assume was a full set of feminine garmentry, seen and unseen. But she said that she had overheard a college swimmer talking on her cell phone in the lockerroom. This young woman was saying, "Thanks a lot. Because of you, I forgot to bring a bra, underwear, and my black shoes."
Evidently, there is a pandemic of this kind of thing happening, and to not discuss it openly will only allow the tragedy to increase.
At this point, please, please, please allow me to have contributed the final posting on a thread I started in the misbegotten hopes of just putting this matter to a vote and end.
Jim, I don't see how "cowardly piece of ****" can be taken out of context, but you're more than welcome to post your pm in it's entirety. Unfortunately, I've already deleted my copy. From my perspective, your response was unprovoked and inexcusable.
Leslie, as I posted previously, I most certainly was not attacking you personally. Lindsay understood my intention quite clearly. I am duly impressed with your top ten rankings, of which I obviously have none. Likewise, I am confident that your team's workouts are intense and challenging. Rest assured that I will take you up on your invitation and drop in for a workout if I am in your area (as I have done with Masters teams in Boston, Phoenix, Chicago, and of course Austin). Saturday just wasn't feasible.
posted by Gull
So is this an invitation of some sort to solicite my opinion? I understand that you view yourself as being of the highest moral fiber sitting up there atop your soap box of self richeousness with your firends Geek and Lindsay. We all live by our own set of moral codes I suppose and I'm sure that mine doesn't live up to the standards of others. I don't feel any remorse for what I said though. I usually try and refrain from using language that abusive....but then again I will from time to time do it anyway when I deem the situation appropriate....It doesn't really matter to me what other people have to say about it either. I tried to keep it "private" though and it certainly wansn't anything I wouldn't have said directly to your face or anything. I find it hard to understand why you felt the need to publicize it (as morally irreprehensible as you and others might see it). To me that seems to be the equivalent of some sniffling spineless kid running to tattle on someone everytime he gets picked on by the mean playground bullies like me.
Was the reason you publicized it for some higher moral purpose? ...Or was it so that you and others can preach from your high self richeous pulpits? You say that you did not in any way intend to be hurtful or mean in your obviously sarcastic posting towards Fortress.....Here's a poster who has done nothing but say nice things to you and Geek every since she's been here....but then you and the Geek felt the need to blindside her one day and try your best to humiliate her in public (llike you are getting some sick kick out of it)....I found that to be way more morally irreprehensible than sending you that "scathing" PM. If you are such a man of high moral fiber, then why couldn't you have handeled the situation in a more tactful manner? You honestly believe that your posting (and your tag team approach to bullying Fortress like that with Geek) was just friendly jibe....no hurtful intent?? I may be a jerk at times Gull....and certainly I have my flaws....but you are really insulting my intelligence if you expect me to buy into that garbage. I wish I could apologize for what I said....but in this case I really don't believe that is possible.....Here's my advise for the future Gull.....If you deliberately try and bait people the way you and Geek do, then you might get an uncivil response from time to time.....try not to go crying like a baby about it in the future.
Newmastersswimmer
