Family Affair or "Who loves ya, baby?"
5
I've been wondering this for a while, and @MEHcus' introduction of @melindakirksey has emboldened me to ask: how many of you who are at least somewhat active on the forums have family members or significant others who are also at least somewhat active here? And is that at all weird for you? Or what is it like?
If I've missed an existing post, feel free to point it out.
- 19 comments, 40 replies
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I wonder how many people have duplicate accounts . . . And argue with themselves in the forums.
@MrsPavlov has two accounts here (one for home and one for the office). Many of my employees have accounts here - probably 10 or 15 or more by now. Plus many of my friends, business acquaintances . . . Plus all the "homeless" people I turn onto the site, you'd be amazed at how many sit and Facebook on their cell phones while waiting for someone to drop a dollar.
@Pavlov Shut up!
@Pavlov @FredGeekPoop No - YOU shut up!!
@Pavlov @FredGeekPoop @srwofuga No, you shut up!
As many of you know, @christinewas is my amazing daughter.
If you knew me, you'd know that I'm annoyingly (it doesn't annoy me, but I think it might annoy others) proud of my baby girl. I am always more than happy to be associated with her greatness--yeah, in part because you might be led to believe that at least some of it is paternally genetic.
But here's the thing for me: when I settled in at meh--and in part as a function of what the site has revealed itself to be--I fully embraced the vulgarity, the snark, the hard R rating and, well, fuck, the general trashiness of the site. It was like my inner don't-give-a-fuck had found its home.
Partly because of who I was when she was born (Pentecostal Fundamentalist Christian subculture and shit), she'd heard me say "fuck" on occasion, but not nearly as much as I do here. I mean, fuck, I fucking say "fuck" every other fucking word here. Sometimes when it's just the wife and me (or I'm alone in the car, dealing with idiot Texas dumbfuck drivers), I do that, but generally not so much in real life. Though, to be honest, I've been going through a whole thing with language and culture and stuff ever since the kid's mom died. Losing someone you're that close to will cause you to reevaluate all of the stupid shit you do just because you think you're supposed to.
Also innuendo in front of my kid feels a little creepy.
When I found out she'd been lurking, it seemed a little late to try to tone it down. And I honestly didn't want to. And I think I worry more about offending her in general than I probably should. So I decided to keep being foul-mouthed me.
It's still a little weird, but, well, damnit, this is who I am, and I'm pretty sure she knew that before meh and she hadn't given up on me to that point, so what was I worried about?
In fact, it's been cool to see her here, and see her developing attachments to people I really like here and see her interacting and all of that. This is a different place, a special place. And despite my being initially weirded out, it's the kind of thing I'd want for her too.
So, yeah, that's my story.
There you go, kiddo. I've been meaning to spit this out for a while (not that you've asked for it or even wanted it, but, ha, you get it anyway). I love you. And I think you're pretty darned cool.
@joelmw Aww. Thanks, dad.
@joelmw "Pentecostal Fundamentalist Christian" - I feel your pain, brother.
@Pavlov It wasn't all bad. There are lingering bits of it that persist. I credit growing up in a liberal community with a very pro-book, pro-intellectual, pro-education mother (who also happened to be a conservative PFC) with the fact that I still more-or-less believe in God, Jesus and the major creeds--more-or-less (depends on the moment how much of each; and it might look weird to anyone who's actually orthodox). So many of the people I know and respect who used to be fundamentalists are now rabidly atheist.
One of the coolest things for me at this stage in my life is recognizing the things from "both sides" (I don't really believe that there are ever only two sides to anything) simultaneously that survive as core values--ironically often hearing the misapprehension that "the other guys" don't care about this stuff. Some would surely argue that some of this doesn't belong on one side or the other, but they'd be wrong. ;-p In truth, I'd acknowledge that, for instance, for many of my Christian friends, some of these things never made it into their Christian belief system, but they could have:
(Speaking of the kid, I think @christinewas got these values from her mom and me--and herself and her community. On some of them she's more hardcore than I am, but I "secretly" think we're different hardcore moreso than more or less.)
For me, I grokked all of these things intensely from each side, even as they often hated on each other. I also always felt such a strong sense at all times (and still do) that I was at odds with wherever I was, even as I also felt that I, in some fundamental sense, belonged. FWIW, I was also a PFC who was a (except on abortion and marriage) liberal; part of my recent change is that I've come to the "dark side" on those issues too.
I'm a Jesusoid Yahwist Humanist with atheist tendencies who believes wholeheartedly in both Science and Fairy Tales, especially when they seem to mutually contradict each other.
@joelmw You're officially added to my list of who to sit down and have a beer with before I die. I'm buying.
@Pavlov That'd be awesome. But I'd have to buy a round at least.
My husband has an account for buying, but doesn't enter the forums, thank goodness.
@jaremelz Are you worried he might see your interactions here (especially with that @mfladd guy)?
@dashcloud
@dashcloud
@dashcloud We don't know what you mean.
@jaremelz @mfladd It looks like the joke I was trying to make fell flat, so one of you will have to take the blame here.
@dashcloud
@dashcloud No it didn't, my friend. We are just messing with you.
p.s. the blame lies with the current goat.
@dashcloud It didn't fall flat at all! We were just misbehaving, as usual. Sorry...
@mfladd And hey, old goat, I might get the blame but I'm taking you down with me!
@jaremelz that you know of anyways.
@ceagee Naw, he did blame me tonight, but I had to sit with him and walk him through it, the dear. Forums, not his cup of tea.
My mom, @katblue, has an account, but she is no longer using it because of her stroke. I really should close it out, but I haven't been able to bring myself to do it. When she was active, we really didn't interact very much. I guess that's because she's not too fond of purple. :)
My husband, some friends, my sister, anyone else I can drag here tend to check out the main page - but the only one to brave the forum once in a while is @humper. You fuckers scare the rest of them.
Oh please, friends of @thumperchick, stick around! I'll clear out some space for ya.
@jaremelz that's why we can't have nice things.
My dad is here and well-known. That isn't really weird for me.
My husband is here, but has only commented a couple times. He did join one of the fantasy football leagues. But that's mostly about... uhh... winning and stuff?
My best friend is also here. She isn't family, but I have known her more than twice as long as I've known my husband, so... it's worth mentioning. She has recently retired from lurking and I love it.
There's no one here I know in real life, that I'm aware of. I let my wife have Facebook and she lets me have this place. Fair trade.
Several people I work with buy from here. Most are terribly afraid of the forums.
My daughter looks in now and then, it was she who introduced me years ago to once honorable ancestor
I know My Brother (who turned me on to Woot way back in 2005) is here somewhere, but unfortunately i have no idea what his username is... if you(he) happen(s) to see this...HI RICK!!!
I don't know anyone here IRL, but I always look at the map and wonder who is in the nearby county. I never see my county light up unless I buy.
My gf has an account (that I made her open) but she's rather computer illiterate (I've previously mentioned how very excellent this is for me) so she doesn't venture into the forums. I feel I'm wasting ample opportunity to bitch about her. Other than her, I just have you all, the family I never thought I wanted but love more than my own.
@cinoclav Back at ya, buddy....
@cinoclav were here for ya.
How did we forget the wonderful @studerc & @chaoscatapult?
@dashcloud Hey! Thats me! Yea, the wifey has her account but rarely engages the forums...shes the lurker. She thinks i spend way to much time here but the $2500 i profited last year helped to make up for her distaste. :)
@studerc Wait, what? Profit?
@joelmw For sure. Buy on Meh, resell at a slight markup. Over the course of the year i made about $2500. Biggest seller? Mini helicopters...bought for $8/$9...sell for $20-25. Probably sold at least 25 of those.
@studerc
@joelmw ive taken a few lumps here and there but after a year ive started to notice product trends that i capitalize on for maximum profitability. Havent jumped into high end flips like dysons and cameras, but eventually i will.
@studerc
My mother's boyfriend, for lack of a better word, turned me on to this site. He may or may not post on the forums. I have no idea what his user name is.
@AnnaB Do you not find it weird that your mother's boyfriend turned you on?
my niece has an account cause I told her about something that was on sale and she bought it. But she said she didn't join VMP cause otherwise she would keep buying stuff. I think she checks out the main page once in awhile, but isn't on here otherwise. I have no idea what her sign in is.
I have a close friend that joined during Kickstarter, but she is usually out of the country and so she rarely comes here.
I only worry about the niece in the sense that sometimes I buy stuff for all her fellow nieces and nephews and then she will know how cheap I am. Naw I think she already knows that.
I've told many people about the site and I know quite a few (+/- 8) have bought something. We don't share usernames because it might get awkward, or something.
@Bogie
I'll also claim @stardate820926 and @denboy as people I know IRL. I don't know if they'd claim me. But we consider @stardate820926 an adopted daughter. And we sometimes refer to @denboy as baby daddy.
And of course I've stalked @snapster. I'm starting to think that was my 15 minutes.
@joelmw
@denboy
@joelmw Oh good, I thought you might be that guy named Joel from the DFW area that I see periodically and refer to as the Towering Inferno of Love.
@denboy @joelmw I don't even want to know why.
@mfladd
@joelmw
@stardate820926 @denboy I'm both flattered and deeply troubled by each of your responses. I'd call that a win.
@mfladd
I've linked to a couple of sales on Facebook but don't know whether they resulted in sales. I guess that's as close as I can come to having a secret cabal within our ranks.
My youngest brother has an account here (he thought he'd told me about the site, lol), but he never ventures over here to the forum. I'm not even sure what his username is over here. On the off chance it's the same as his Woot username, hi @deucemonkey!
Turns out my brother doesn't even know his own username.
I don't know any of you saps although I'm sure I live near at least a few of you