When conversations, threads, posts, whatever, appear here that include things I was not a part of (i.e. conversations that took place off the board), I am not offended. Why? Because I have not found a way to bend time and be in all places at all times. Not that I would want to.
Bragging? When ANYone from this board has ANY interaction, gift, conversation, whatever, with ANYone from DJ and they post it HERE, on MIKE'S MUD ROOM, I am not angry. I AM HAPPY!! NO MATTER WHO IT IS!
Why? Because where ELSE would you post these things? With OTHER like-minded fans? Of course. People from HotSprings did, the lady who went and saw him on Leno did, the 150th did, the Lowes meeting group did, the book signing people did, the people that went to the magazine signings did....
I DON'T CALL IT BRAGGING!!!
Is it bragging when a 'host' comes on here and talks about their experience with Mike and the crew? How bout the snakelady? She obviously has a 'better than fan' relationship with Mike, right? Should we all gang up on her and tell her to "GO AWAY, HE LIKES YOU BETTER!!!" ??? I think not.
I also read the same posts and I do NOT see where they are being 'rude' when they posts these things. Obviously Mike doesn't either.
Who ARE these people that say ONE person on this MB can talk about their Mike encounters, but then form a list of people who CANNOT?
I really don't get this. I never will. There has been a long standing feeling of entitlement that if you join this MB, then you are ENTITLED to be in EVERY group, know EVERY joke, be in on EVERY story and dammit, if not, you are being "mean". I joined and did NOT feel that way...still don't!
Using that example, anyone who joins the MB from this moment on should be really ticked off!! After all, there are quite a number of friendship groups that exist here now. HOW RUDE! How DARE people have friendships on a MB!? How DARE you have a SINGLE private joke????
I don't have to be in on every joke, I don't have to be friends with any certain group and I don't feel mad because someone had a DJ encounter.
Here is what I can't understand...why is it there are only 'select' groups allowed on this MB? It's okay if "the night owls" (as they call themselves), the "hot springs" group, other small friendship groups come on here and banter back and forth, share stories, inside jokes and so on... Why are the 06er's being singled out as 'mean' for doing the EXACT same thing as these groups?
(All of the above were examples of groups that exist on this board and are not being directly targeted as 'troublemakers'...)
You are correct, Diana. I could not have said it better. Especially since I am in the middle of trying to accomplish about 5 things at 1 time and do a great job at it - my brain is a little on the mushy side right now.
Diana - simply because its not the same. All due respect to you and your friends, its just not.
Mel and Dave have a relationship outside of this board. Just go over to the crew forum and read the What about HS thread. Shari is a moderator on this board who is friends with Mel and Jana. No, I am sure she never gossips with them. Whatever. They talk constantly in code speak. No one from Hot Springs does that. Sure, there may be references to things that people who are not nightowls don't understand, but ask anyone of us and we would gladly explain it to you. Jana on the other hand was asked yesterday what presents she got from Mike and there's been no reply. Its antagonistic. They are condesending and mean. I'm sorry, thats just the truth.
Diana, I understand where you're coming from. Gonna tell ya a quick story. Well knowing me, won't be so quick. lol
I was a moderator on a famous medium's official website. Complete with MB just like this and a live chat room.
This fellow was seen every week on TV for awhile. Moderating his site was a nightmare. Mainly the very groups you speak of here, existed there. The have's and have not's.
The have's were all the people who were able to go to this guy's stage shows and meet him afterwards in meet and greets. He is a very generous person, very handsome, and always made every fan feel special. The fans felt priviledged to know him and wasted no time hastily running to their computers after a meeting to tell all about it. Were they bragging? Yeah basically although they would never think so.
The have not's were all the other fans who had never met this fella but got the occasional signed autograph card and participated in the live chat room. They thought through this outlet, they were that much closer to the man. Even though he never participated himself live, he did answer questions once in awhile on the MB. Like Mike and Barsky do here.
OOOOooooo...big mistake, having that chat room.
Not only did the haves and have nots start feeling slighted by each other, but the believers and non believers got into knock down drag out fights over ghostie/spiritual matters.
I swear I saw some black and blue eyes through those computer screens as the cyber punches went flying. Maybe it was a psychic vision. LOLOLOLOLOL
Sorry, anyway it wasn't about faith. It wasn't about whether they believed in this man's psychic abilities or not. It was all about the darn TV show. If he wasn't on the show and not famous as a television celebrity....who'd care?
Everyone wants to know a celebrity. Admit it people. Some of you educated types want to invite Mike and crew for a drink and have great convos. Some of the ladies here just flat out want Mike. End of story. But everyone has their little reasons for wanting a little bit of what they can't have. Namely fame. Or just to be able to say..."Hey, Mike answered my question on the MB. You know, the Dirty Jobs guy."
The above mentioned psychic medium is no longer on the TV show and 98% of the MB and chat room fan base is GONE. As a matter of fact we had to shut the chat room down because it got out of control. The medium is happy to be doing what is comfortable for him - making a nice living doing his evening of live mediumship shows and I do believe he's quite content right where he is now.
No more NUTZO fans sending flowers to his home. He actually had to change his locks. Truly. No more pleas from some people honestly in need of real professional mental health help hoping to silence the voices in their heads. No more bizarre threads on the MB about how he looks in nothing but an apron. Oh yeah, this place and it's crotch shot nonsense of a few weeks back PALES in comparison to the weeks I stayed up to 4am editing a zillion stupid posts.
But it's all gone now. And so am I. I got fired. Got sick and tired of pandering to people who needed to get off their butts and go outside into the fresh air.
Yes, some people believe in the afterlife some don't. Never had a problem with giving due credit to either side's opinion. What bothered me was people thinking it was o.k. to say things because they "knew" him. One young man in particular kept saying "it's o.k. to post this, he knows and he won't mind". Well he did mind very much and we had to squash this kid's self glorification. It was like he had to break all the news first, be the mouthpiece, the town cryer. It was a bad obsession with celebrity.
I don't call getting an autograph and spending 10 minutes chatting a friendship building moment. But to some, it is a big deal. To meet their hero, their favorite celebrity. Even if that man is funny and sweet and poses for ooodles of pictures. Even if you sit down for a quick drink, do you really think you "know" someone from that?
We're celebrity obsessed here in this culture. Just par for the course, all of this internet MB stuff. There will always be factions and insiders and psuedo "friends of" who think they "know" someone better than another.
Five years from now, ten years from now when DJ is just around in syndication will any of us still be here?
If Mike decides to pack it in and go live on a mountain somewhere, never to be seen on TV again the same thing will happen to this board. There will be a few straglers who have internet friendships more than anything. The folks will still chat to each other and talk about the show but it won't be so much about Mike, Barsky, or crew. It'll be because this was where they were happy and had fun.
The internet is a lot of bad, but it's got some good too. Just remember NEVER take anything you read on the internet seriously and NEVER assume you know someone or something because of the "insider" banter on a website.
First of all, it is NOT the whole truth, but rather your opinion on how these people interact off the board and on the board. The only thing I have to 'get over' as you so politely put it, is the ability of very petty people to upset me.
What about the rest of my post? No comment on all of it, other than YOU know the minds, motivations and EVILDOINGS of these nefarious FRIENDS OF MIKE'S ....
We all know what a rotten fellow HE is, so it only follows that those he considers worthy of his friendship are also clearly meanspirited.
If you are of the mind that they do and say things JUST to antagonize you, then stop reading their posts. What are you trying to accomplish by bashing them? Do you HONESTLY think that this intelligent group of people live ONLY to be nasty, meanspitired people that have no other life than to come on this MB, JUST to p!ss you off??? REALLY???
Unfortunately, people will post nasty things IN the 06'ers threads so it's hard to ignore those people or I most assuredly would! I am CERTAIN that MOST people would...but as you see, many people are getting fed up with it. This is not the place for the pettiness.
Why do you make the assumption that I am speaking ONLY for 'my friends'?
I do not limit number the people I post to/with on this MB only a select 'group' of posters only, unlike other people. I do not choose only a handful of people to consider my 'friends' and consider the others any less.
My take is that there is ONE reason we are all here. Dirty Jobs and Mike Rowe. Why are you here? I like to discuss Mike, the show and share friendly banter with others, full stop. I do NOT enjoy the constant bickering and am completely at a loss at to why there is such pettiness on this MB. I wish I understood it, but I do not.
I say it again; When ANYone has a great encounter with Mike/crew in ANY form, I celebrate it. Why doesn't everyone?
The only thing I feel entitlement toward is having my own opinion. One I can either choose to share or not. Read this board whether I sign on to say anything or not. Provided of course I keep AT&T satisfied. To watch DJ provided I keep paying the electric and satellite bill.
There are a few entitlements but they come with caveats of life's responsibilities. Some we choose to have. Others come with the territory of daily modern life. So I'm not so sure how true to the description said entitlements are.
Everyone wants to feel special I guess. That certainly comes out on the board sometimes. It's a fascinating process to watch. A little like people watching in a train station or airport. Everyone wants something from whatever they are involved with. Strange they don't see it in other persons as well. We are all here to share and interact. Whether you are a member of some self proclaimed sub group or an independent agent. You call it BS. If it is BS, its for both sides or all factions. Not just one or who you aren't friends with. When the board gets like this. This is most certainly not the first or last time unless it all goes away tomorrow. You can track the beginning with a single action to the end of the cycle when things once again calm down. Down to the postings of videos, photos and funny threads dominating the lion share of attention.
What I meant by 'entitlement' is this; when someone posts a private joke and then one, or a few, come on and say that someone is being 'mean' by not sharing every single joke...yet the same people who are complaining are doing the same thing.
Do you feel like it's your 'right' as a MB poster to know every single inside joke that is posted? I sure don't, but there are people who do! I don't get it!
You are absolutely correct about everyone wants to feel special and I understand that. I guess I just don't understand why some people can post nearly the same thing and it's hunkydory, but when someone else does, it's meanspirited?
mikeywaltripfan: I am sorry, but I just stole this from the 'trustworthy fan' thread...PLEASE forgive me, but it is SO apt and really answered some of my confusion.
PLEASE NOTE: mikeywaltripfan did NOT approve of this post stealing and has IN NO WAY endorsed any views expressed by myself (OP).
post from mikeywaltripfan from another thread:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "Why do we do this?
It's a good Anthropological question.
For instance, I can say..."I know Dale Earnhardt Jr."
1. You have to be a NASCAR fan to get the reference, and not everyone is.
2. If you are a NASCAR fan I have just impressed you. Does that make me feel good. Sure. In a sly, BS kinda way. Read on.
3. I don't like Dale Earnhardt Jr. But I know him. LOL
4. I lied, I have "met" Dale Jr. in a meet and greet and I guarantee you he wouldn't remember me. I was just one of a thousand handshakes that day. But I had ya goin'. Didn't I?
5. It's the INTERNET! There is no greater source of false angst than a fan base getting jealous.
We're so human. No wonder the dolphins and great apes won't talk to us. We're idiots.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ end of quote.
Diana. does anyone else think this is a great perspective?
Originally posted by megantracey0608: Diana - simply because its not the same. All due respect to you and your friends, its just not.
Mel and Dave have a relationship outside of this board. Just go over to the crew forum and read the What about HS thread. Shari is a moderator on this board who is friends with Mel and Jana. No, I am sure she never gossips with them. Whatever. They talk constantly in code speak. No one from Hot Springs does that. Sure, there may be references to things that people who are not nightowls don't understand, but ask anyone of us and we would gladly explain it to you. Jana on the other hand was asked yesterday what presents she got from Mike and there's been no reply. Its antagonistic. They are condesending and mean. I'm sorry, thats just the truth.
Deal with it. MeganT
If these people bother you so much, why not use the ignore option and just not see anything they post?
Thanks Diana for reposting mikeywaltripfan's quote. I was amused.
I don't think this is what Mike envisioned for his MB.
I am a member of the Night Owls, yes, but I began as a member of this board - because I am a dedicated fan of the show from epi 1.
Have you ever realized that WE are a group and have inside information & jokes that other people have no clue about? Groups will ALWAYS have inside jokes, in all walks of life. Personally I have a group of friends that I have known since age 5 - we have MANY secrets and inside jokes about one another. Does that make us bad people? No - it's called being close friends.
Our group was lucky enough to meet Mike. I posted a play by play of our weekend. Bragging it certainly was not - I thought of it as including the MB as a group.
For one I am completely happy for any fan to meet Mike and love to read their story of the meeting. I personally know how wonderful it was that he shared a couple of days with us, how kind & funny he was & wish we could do it all over! Meeting the girls was one of the highlights of my life. I would never take that back.
This should be a place for people to share their thoughts & feelings and discuss the show & the boys.
It's a losing battle trying to make others see the truth, mostly because everyone has their own version of it!
What has helped me is to remember the great friends I have made here, and how supportive they've been when I needed it, and how they can make me laugh more and longer than anyone else!
The rest is just a pile of...well, you know...that is to be walked over just as you would if you saw it on the sidewalk.
Save your breath (and your sanity) and just keep contributing to the fun threads, and the thought-provoking ones, and ignore everything else.
Liz
P.S. Tricia, if you're going to take it's name in vain, at least spell it right! It's Krispy Kreme! Oh boy, could I go for one or a dozen of those right about now...
You are absolutely correct about everyone wants to feel special and I understand that. I guess I just don't understand why some people can post nearly the same thing and it's hunkydory, but when someone else does, it's meanspirited?
Diana. I wish I knew.
Well this is where we must part company. Watching the discussions there are decided different tones. Whether I'm misinterpreting is up for debate. So could your impressions as well.
I've made a kind of begrudging peace with it in a way. Like the words to that song; "that's just the way it is". I try to talk to everyone. If I'm on ignore with some. So be it. I know people who just love here and the show. Others who can't stand the board and have less than complimentary things to say about the show and it's host. I have to accept their opinion while having my own. It's called respect. And I think here that is the one glaring exception that may cause the most trouble. Not jealousy or revenge. Despite how much being here may mean to some it's just a very small place in a very very big world. Accept for a few accidents of life I wouldn't know anything about Dirty Jobs or Mike Rowe. Many still don't contrary to all we see here. It's preaching to the choir. There is a whole outside world who continue blissfully unaware and not missing it.
I wasn't putting down the fun threads and videos and photos earlier. I love those and have done a few myself. Laughing is very therapeutic. Singing the PeanutButter Jelly song from Family Guy always puts me in a good mood to laugh. Although it is not the larger part of my nature to joke around. My preference is toward discussions of ideas and attitudes. Those are more fulfilling for me.
Originally posted by megantracey0608: Diana - simply because its not the same. All due respect to you and your friends, its just not.
Mel and Dave have a relationship outside of this board. Just go over to the crew forum and read the What about HS thread. Shari is a moderator on this board who is friends with Mel and Jana. No, I am sure she never gossips with them. Whatever. They talk constantly in code speak. No one from Hot Springs does that. Sure, there may be references to things that people who are not nightowls don't understand, but ask anyone of us and we would gladly explain it to you. Jana on the other hand was asked yesterday what presents she got from Mike and there's been no reply. Its antagonistic. They are condesending and mean. I'm sorry, thats just the truth.
Deal with it. MeganT
megan, you rock.
thanks for the above post. you know you were gonna get beat up on. pity.
i agree with you.
also, the blowing your own horn, mike loves me the best and i am wonderful posts are hurlers.
I am not sure I have the traction to post on this topic, but I feel I am enough of an innocent bystander to post my opinion.
Reading this thread, and several others like it have always amused me. I have a questionable psychological need to over-analyze everything; I am sometimes known to be incapable of making certain decisions because I am so eager to understand both sides of an issue that, by the end, I can't decide which side I deem "right". Most of the time, I can see the validity in both arguments. Just as when I was a child, I like to sit on the fence--literally and metaphorically.
Anyway--my point: I see both sides of this argument. Sicne I have little time to spend on this MB and I am too ADD to read the oodles of previous posts, I would guesstimate that I don't understand 94% of the conversations going on here. It is obvious to me that several people on this board know each other and have special relationships. I am not a member of the "in" crowd, but then again, I don't put any effort into being a part of any crowd. I just come on, sit in the shadows, read things that intrigue me and ignore things I don't.
Though I consider myself to be rather intelligent (I just earned my masters, thank you. Wait, I may be bragging), I enjoy a rather high level of ignorance. Not knowing everything generally leads to an easier, happier life. The whole "ignorance is bliss" motto. If I was supposed to know, I would.
The whole point of an inside joke or private story is that it is "inside" or "private". I guess I am pretty nonchalant about being kept in the dark because it is the story of my life: People very close to me generally respond to my multitude of questions with, "you don't need to know everything," or "I'll tell you in the car,"--which never happens. Somehow, in someway, I am still able to function in life without knowing everything.
To come to an end--I have rambled off track again--I am not offended at all my this message board, and the occassional inside comments. I know I have not invested enough time or energy in the board to earn a piece of the treasured information. And I agree with several others: I much prefer to hear about fans meeting Mike than to have no comment on it at all.
The only thing I have really noticed about this MB is that some members have an insatiable need to be catty, and that is an action I have never been able to understand, no matter how much I ponder it.
I am actually at the very end of the Virgo spectrum, which puts me dangerously close to the Libra side. That must be where my need of balance arises, because, you're right: it is everything!
Gayle, You are always respectful and I appreciate that. I wish I could get back to that 'happy place' and I am working on it. I wish everyone were as respectful as you.
I just don't want people to leave again, so I vent.
Liz, Krispy Kreme, microwaved 6 seconds...tastes just like it came right off the rack! Pure Bliss!
Diana. I live 45 minutes away from the closest Krispy Kreme store. d@mn.
Originally posted by east1952: What has helped me is to remember the great friends I have made here, and how supportive they've been when I needed it, and how they can make me laugh more and longer than anyone else!
The rest is just a pile of...well, you know...that is to be walked over just as you would if you saw it on the sidewalk.
Liz
I wonder Liz if you didn't feel and write this way, it would change the way others on this board responded to you. I may not agree with everyone on the board but I do refrain from intimating they are fecal matter.
Life is too short for getting your digestion in a knot over virtual verberhea.
Barb *this is my own personal opinion and does not reflect any input from any group I may be identified with, may belong to, or may in the future be a part of, nor a personal attack. in fact I am pretty dang mellow and happy with the world at the moment and hope you are too*
Oh boy, could I go for one or a dozen of those right about now...
