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Messages - mark_engels
91
« on: May 12, 2003, 06:34:46 pm »
Unless I get that teaching job in Japan, I'm not learning much more than I already know for a while... no reason to...  ;
.
.
.
Aside from translating random pages from mangas...I doubt I'll be doing much with it for a while... :p (Unless I get said job... which isn't looking too good right now...)
Something you might want to consider, Kathy, is a Japanese program called "home-stay." I'm told by friend and fellow EH fictwriter Ken Wolfe it's not unlike being an exchange student or hosting one in your home. From what he tells me there are a number of Japanese households that open their doors to visiting "gaijin" for two weeks up to one year stays. And some are "full immersion"--the host families don't speak a word of English. I suppose it would be the ultimate in crash course Nihongo... Anyone interested in more information, use this forum's IM feature to send me your email address. I'll forward your requests on to Ken so he can reply to you directly. --me Mark Engels
92
« on: May 12, 2003, 06:10:36 pm »
I don't know if I'd want to be recognized as the fanfic writer "MrWhat" at a convention 
Female attendee: Are you MrWhat?
Eric: Yeah, that's me.
Female attendee: So you're the pathetic loser that wrote "Mara's Worst Nightmare." (laughs in Eric's face and walks away)
I've read through MWN up to the end of the "debug" phase. Is that all there is of MWN to date? Really, I think your comments about MWN in your recent post declining an appearance at Anime Central were too self-depricating. I enjoyed MWN a great deal, as I think any Oh My Goddess fan would. It had a lot of the same feel to it as Fujishima's original story it. Light, funny and, most importantly, the story didn't take itself too seriously. Given the SI nature of the piece suggests a laudable ability to laugh at yourself. It was enjoyable, so I'll hope I'll see more! Sorry for the Yggdrasil hiccup. Back to your regularly scheduled EHOL programming.  --me Mark Engels
93
« on: May 11, 2003, 09:25:37 pm »
Ah. Yes, the length of the posts.
El and me were talking about that today.
I think he is a nice guy, and he has a lot of depth, but sometimes I'm not sure what he's talking about. (sorry Mark!) I'm sure you'll understand in due time. --me Mark Engels
94
« on: May 11, 2003, 09:25:37 pm »
Ah. Yes, the length of the posts.
El and me were talking about that today.
I think he is a nice guy, and he has a lot of depth, but sometimes I'm not sure what he's talking about. (sorry Mark!) I'm sure you'll understand in due time. --me Mark Engels
95
« on: May 11, 2003, 10:16:28 am »
Yup! I think Mark is the oldest (or close to it) among all of us.  (No offense there, just fact. ) I mentioned in another thread Adcock's a few notches above me on the seniority roster. And Haran's in his fifties if I read his bio right ("bjork" from back in the EH threads. But I think he got scared off after one of the "dub vs. sub" debates.)
But I agree with all that he said there, very nicely put. I don't think there's a thing I could add to this thread at this point.
Now if that ain't the most subtle way of saying "LET'S MOVE ON" I don't know what is.  One thing that I've discovered is a necessary part of my own healing processes is to show my support for those who are going through similar challenges and disappointments as I did. That is not to say I'm without challenges and disappointments of my own, friends, but they are much different now at 32 than the ones I experienced at 17, 19 or 22. I wouldn't change a thing, however, because all those things that happened then and the lessons I learned from them have helped me cope better with the myriad of different things I'm having to deal with now. This will sound cliche but one day each of you will look back on all the nasty things you've gone through and be grateful--those things will have helped you appreciate the good things that did come your way.
Anyhow... you're all too young to be bitter... just wait til someone strings you along for 3 years... heh THEN you can be grizzled like me!
And I would suggest to you, Kathy, you're too young to NOT be bitter. Just before all the things I describe above went down I found myself thinking much the same thing. But I found the process of accepting the hand dealt me and moving on to be a liberating one, as it appears you are discovering. Being lonely can try one's soul, but being *alone* really ain't so bad once you get used to it.
I'm sure there is SOMEONE out there who can put up with my crap... but I have yet to find him... maybe I will maybe I won't... at this point... either way... I don't care.
I can look on the bright side... If I don't meet someone and I'm in good health I'll be able to live off my teaching retirement cos I won't be worried about anyone but me... which means I can retire at 53 years old... heh sweet. Be afraid... cos scary things happen when I am bored! yes, indeed...
It was after I had found myself comfortable and accepting of my situation of being alone that I found I could build a healthy relationship with someone else. By then I had put my anger and the resultant stand-offish nature aside and simply allowed myself to accept the intentions of whomever came my way. That's when I met Sonia (and the rest, as they say, is history.) Railroad Retirement is pretty good too, which is part of the reason I took this job (we pay into that and not into Social Security, which Railroad Retirement predates. And we're nicked a lot more for RRR than I would have been for SS, so it builds up much faster. That doesn't mean I haven't stopped contributing to my IRA, though, because who knows what this administration or any other will do to monkey around with that sacred cow? Ah, but that is for another discussion thread.)
LOL ok... that was damned funny right about now... I don't know why... I think I need more sleep... 4 and a half hours is just not cutting it ^_^;
I read your intro on your sarahsensei page and can empathise with your plight. When I first moved to Minneapolis the engineering gigs I found were so skimpy I could barely make my house payment! And my wife was working too, third shift because of the shift differential pay. So we were broke and didn't get to see each other much! I ended up selling my truck because I couldn't make the payments anymore. Let me explain: I grew up in farm country, folks, THAT HURT getting rid of my '95 Chevy K1500 Z-71 in forest green!!!! But the Grand Am I bought to replace it could really scoot! So to help make ends meet I went back to driving truck on the weekends. I had worked in a scrapyard and for a ready mix concrete place the couple summers before I worked for the Corps of Engineers, so had first gotten my commerical driver's license then. I took a part time job at Home Depot driving their delivery trucks on the weekends. I would roll out at 4:30 Saturday morning (usually before my third shift wife had even come home from work) be out the door by 5:30 and at the store by 6. Then I would curse and stamp around because every one of the orders I had to put on my truck hadn't been picked and staged. So I'd spend the next two hours picking my orders and staging them on pallets, THEN put them on my truck and strap 'em down. I'd call for a manager to come over and check my load (they had to sign off because material strangely disappeared if they didn't inspect every outbound load.) That would mean another half hour wait. SO I'm three hours late on my first delivery every Saturday which despite my hoofin' it I could never make up. Sundays would be much the same. So after a summer of working seven days a week I was about sick of it. I had a 96 International with a Cummins L-10 and a nine-speed RoadRanger tranny. That was nice and the little Moffet forklift I toted along on the trailer behind me was fun to run. It was really a Tim Allen thing--men would worship the ground I drove over with that thing! Shortly there after I left Home Depot to take a job with a company that hauled intermodal trailers of US Mail from Minneapolis to Chicago, where they would be loaded onto flatcars for the ride east to the Atlantic Seaboard (Harrisburg, PA and Springfield, MA.) That job was a lot less screwing around (the loads were sealed so it was all drop and hook with 45 or 48 foot dry vans) but the hours SUCKED. I'd get called up about 8:30 or 9:00 PM on a Friday night. By the time I drove my car across town to pick up my tractor, fill out my logbook, do my walkaround inspection and book my butt over to the BMC (Bulk Mail Center) It would be oh, say, 10:30 or 11:00. Stand in line, grab my bills, lock my kingpin under one of those old ugly beat up wagons that hardly ever even rolled straight and pump up my air. Check my lights, tug on my brakes and cut 'er hard to the exit lanes. Wait in line AGAIN to get out of there (what could they have been thinking we were smuggling out?) and finally get onto NB I-35E sometime about midnight. Veer off onto I-494 and stand on the pedal to get me rolling fast enough to make the hill east of the Lakota River Bridge and ride about a nickel or dime over until I got to EB I-94. Two toots on the horn (we lived within earshot of this interchange) to say hello to my wife before she left for work. Slide down a couple to make the cloverleaf then throw 'er back into top gear up against the dashboard. Stand on the pedal and don't let up until I hit Mauston, Wisconsin some three to four hours later, depending on the weather. Traffic that time of day across central Wisconsin was hardly a problem. It would be well into the wee hours I'd jump out in Mauston for a twenty minute stop. During that time I'd dump in some fuel if I needed it, go drain down the ballast tank (hit the head!), grab me some grease n' caffiene, walk around waving my arms around to keep the blood circulating, update my logbook and be off again. Throw 'er into top gear again stick straight up against the dash again and leave 'er there until I got to the Illinois State Line. Stop and go every twenty miles or so and pay toll. Get downtown Chi-town, grateful its late enough at night the "spectators" have gone home. (Anyone who's ever driven through the middle of urban decay at about 2:30 in the morning knows what I'm talking about.) Hit the yard, stand in line. Decipher someone's broken English (I've been UP ALL NIGHT for cryin' out loud!) to find out where to land this damn trailer. Monkey around trying to parallel park a 48 foot trailer in a 40 foot space. Say AFI and pull the pin, knowing I'll be long gone before they find it this way. Call the dispatcher and get my new trailer number to bring back to The Cities. Wait as he takes fourteen other calls ahead of me. Get a number and bounce around the gravel yard with potholes large enough to lose small cars in as my bleary eyes try to make out those 3" numbers on the end and sides of every trailer (which are really hard to see in these dimly lit yards when my eyes are half closed anyway.) Hook under the right one and check my lights and brakes. Wait in line AGAIN to check out. Roll west on State Street and jump on the WB Dan Ryan without even a backward glance. Pull off at the oasis in Des Plaines, IL just as the sun begins to crest the eastern horizon. Update my logbook, run up my cruise so the heater will stay running preventing me from feezing the boys off in my sleeper bunk (it happened ONCE, folks) and collapse. Wake up six and a half hours later after having been up for the previous twenty-four hours. Not feeling too good. Stumble into the bathroom at the McDonalds in the oasis and splash water on my face. Brush my teeth, comb my hair, curse myself for not putting down at least somewhere where I can rent a shower (like at most truck stops, but, eheheh, that's another story altogether.) Grab me some more grease n' caffiene. By now I've been off duty for my legal eight hours so I can roll again. Maybe I'll get back while it's still daylight provided one of these shitty tires on these junky intermodal trailers don't leave an alligator along the freeway someplace. Do my walkaround again, clean my windows, update my logbook, and let's ride. Stop and go at the damn tolls, keep my speed legal (it's 55 for trucks on the Illinois toll roads though that hardly stops me from being passed like I'm standing still) and stand on it when I get to the Wisconsin border. Stop at Mauston again--let some out, put some in, and ride ride ride. Back in Minneapolis a time later. Drop the trailer back at the BMC and bobtail back to the rental place. Drag my stuff out of the cab into my car trunk, throw the keys in the drop box and thank God I don't do this for a living. Get in my car and drop my bills and logbook off at the dispatcher's office. Head back home to wait for my wife to get off work and catch a snooze. And then go to work on Monday to my DAY JOB and do it all over again. Tuesday or Wednesday the check shows up...usually I'd clear about $200 or so for my little 28-hour jaunt. But was it worth it hurtling 80,000 lbs. of steel down the freeway at 65 MPH when I could barely keep my eyes open? Ah the things we do for the almighty dollar. Suffice to say I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore just to keep the creditors away. But at least I had three or four hour stretches where I could "listen to the engine moanin' out his one note song" and ponder the quandaries of life. That's when a good number of my previous Battle Angel Alita fan fiction ideas were tossed around in my mind, in fact. --me Mark Engels
96
« on: May 11, 2003, 10:16:28 am »
Yup! I think Mark is the oldest (or close to it) among all of us. (No offense there, just fact. ) I mentioned in another thread Adcock's a few notches above me on the seniority roster. And Haran's in his fifties if I read his bio right ("bjork" from back in the EH threads. But I think he got scared off after one of the "dub vs. sub" debates.)
But I agree with all that he said there, very nicely put. I don't think there's a thing I could add to this thread at this point.
Now if that ain't the most subtle way of saying "LET'S MOVE ON" I don't know what is. One thing that I've discovered is a necessary part of my own healing processes is to show my support for those who are going through similar challenges and disappointments as I did. That is not to say I'm without challenges and disappointments of my own, friends, but they are much different now at 32 than the ones I experienced at 17, 19 or 22. I wouldn't change a thing, however, because all those things that happened then and the lessons I learned from them have helped me cope better with the myriad of different things I'm having to deal with now. This will sound cliche but one day each of you will look back on all the nasty things you've gone through and be grateful--those things will have helped you appreciate the good things that did come your way.
Anyhow... you're all too young to be bitter... just wait til someone strings you along for 3 years... heh THEN you can be grizzled like me!
And I would suggest to you, Kathy, you're too young to NOT be bitter. Just before all the things I describe above went down I found myself thinking much the same thing. But I found the process of accepting the hand dealt me and moving on to be a liberating one, as it appears you are discovering. Being lonely can try one's soul, but being *alone* really ain't so bad once you get used to it.
I'm sure there is SOMEONE out there who can put up with my crap... but I have yet to find him... maybe I will maybe I won't... at this point... either way... I don't care.
I can look on the bright side... If I don't meet someone and I'm in good health I'll be able to live off my teaching retirement cos I won't be worried about anyone but me... which means I can retire at 53 years old... heh sweet. Be afraid... cos scary things happen when I am bored! yes, indeed...
It was after I had found myself comfortable and accepting of my situation of being alone that I found I could build a healthy relationship with someone else. By then I had put my anger and the resultant stand-offish nature aside and simply allowed myself to accept the intentions of whomever came my way. That's when I met Sonia (and the rest, as they say, is history.) Railroad Retirement is pretty good too, which is part of the reason I took this job (we pay into that and not into Social Security, which Railroad Retirement predates. And we're nicked a lot more for RRR than I would have been for SS, so it builds up much faster. That doesn't mean I haven't stopped contributing to my IRA, though, because who knows what this administration or any other will do to monkey around with that sacred cow? Ah, but that is for another discussion thread.)
LOL ok... that was damned funny right about now... I don't know why... I think I need more sleep... 4 and a half hours is just not cutting it ^_^;
I read your intro on your sarahsensei page and can empathise with your plight. When I first moved to Minneapolis the engineering gigs I found were so skimpy I could barely make my house payment! And my wife was working too, third shift because of the shift differential pay. So we were broke and didn't get to see each other much! I ended up selling my truck because I couldn't make the payments anymore. Let me explain: I grew up in farm country, folks, THAT HURT getting rid of my '95 Chevy K1500 Z-71 in forest green!!!! But the Grand Am I bought to replace it could really scoot! So to help make ends meet I went back to driving truck on the weekends. I had worked in a scrapyard and for a ready mix concrete place the couple summers before I worked for the Corps of Engineers, so had first gotten my commerical driver's license then. I took a part time job at Home Depot driving their delivery trucks on the weekends. I would roll out at 4:30 Saturday morning (usually before my third shift wife had even come home from work) be out the door by 5:30 and at the store by 6. Then I would curse and stamp around because every one of the orders I had to put on my truck hadn't been picked and staged. So I'd spend the next two hours picking my orders and staging them on pallets, THEN put them on my truck and strap 'em down. I'd call for a manager to come over and check my load (they had to sign off because material strangely disappeared if they didn't inspect every outbound load.) That would mean another half hour wait. SO I'm three hours late on my first delivery every Saturday which despite my hoofin' it I could never make up. Sundays would be much the same. So after a summer of working seven days a week I was about sick of it. I had a 96 International with a Cummins L-10 and a nine-speed RoadRanger tranny. That was nice and the little Moffet forklift I toted along on the trailer behind me was fun to run. It was really a Tim Allen thing--men would worship the ground I drove over with that thing! Shortly there after I left Home Depot to take a job with a company that hauled intermodal trailers of US Mail from Minneapolis to Chicago, where they would be loaded onto flatcars for the ride east to the Atlantic Seaboard (Harrisburg, PA and Springfield, MA.) That job was a lot less screwing around (the loads were sealed so it was all drop and hook with 45 or 48 foot dry vans) but the hours SUCKED. I'd get called up about 8:30 or 9:00 PM on a Friday night. By the time I drove my car across town to pick up my tractor, fill out my logbook, do my walkaround inspection and book my butt over to the BMC (Bulk Mail Center) It would be oh, say, 10:30 or 11:00. Stand in line, grab my bills, lock my kingpin under one of those old ugly beat up wagons that hardly ever even rolled straight and pump up my air. Check my lights, tug on my brakes and cut 'er hard to the exit lanes. Wait in line AGAIN to get out of there (what could they have been thinking we were smuggling out?) and finally get onto NB I-35E sometime about midnight. Veer off onto I-494 and stand on the pedal to get me rolling fast enough to make the hill east of the Lakota River Bridge and ride about a nickel or dime over until I got to EB I-94. Two toots on the horn (we lived within earshot of this interchange) to say hello to my wife before she left for work. Slide down a couple to make the cloverleaf then throw 'er back into top gear up against the dashboard. Stand on the pedal and don't let up until I hit Mauston, Wisconsin some three to four hours later, depending on the weather. Traffic that time of day across central Wisconsin was hardly a problem. It would be well into the wee hours I'd jump out in Mauston for a twenty minute stop. During that time I'd dump in some fuel if I needed it, go drain down the ballast tank (hit the head!), grab me some grease n' caffiene, walk around waving my arms around to keep the blood circulating, update my logbook and be off again. Throw 'er into top gear again stick straight up against the dash again and leave 'er there until I got to the Illinois State Line. Stop and go every twenty miles or so and pay toll. Get downtown Chi-town, grateful its late enough at night the "spectators" have gone home. (Anyone who's ever driven through the middle of urban decay at about 2:30 in the morning knows what I'm talking about.) Hit the yard, stand in line. Decipher someone's broken English (I've been UP ALL NIGHT for cryin' out loud!) to find out where to land this damn trailer. Monkey around trying to parallel park a 48 foot trailer in a 40 foot space. Say AFI and pull the pin, knowing I'll be long gone before they find it this way. Call the dispatcher and get my new trailer number to bring back to The Cities. Wait as he takes fourteen other calls ahead of me. Get a number and bounce around the gravel yard with potholes large enough to lose small cars in as my bleary eyes try to make out those 3" numbers on the end and sides of every trailer (which are really hard to see in these dimly lit yards when my eyes are half closed anyway.) Hook under the right one and check my lights and brakes. Wait in line AGAIN to check out. Roll west on State Street and jump on the WB Dan Ryan without even a backward glance. Pull off at the oasis in Des Plaines, IL just as the sun begins to crest the eastern horizon. Update my logbook, run up my cruise so the heater will stay running preventing me from feezing the boys off in my sleeper bunk (it happened ONCE, folks) and collapse. Wake up six and a half hours later after having been up for the previous twenty-four hours. Not feeling too good. Stumble into the bathroom at the McDonalds in the oasis and splash water on my face. Brush my teeth, comb my hair, curse myself for not putting down at least somewhere where I can rent a shower (like at most truck stops, but, eheheh, that's another story altogether.) Grab me some more grease n' caffiene. By now I've been off duty for my legal eight hours so I can roll again. Maybe I'll get back while it's still daylight provided one of these shitty tires on these junky intermodal trailers don't leave an alligator along the freeway someplace. Do my walkaround again, clean my windows, update my logbook, and let's ride. Stop and go at the damn tolls, keep my speed legal (it's 55 for trucks on the Illinois toll roads though that hardly stops me from being passed like I'm standing still) and stand on it when I get to the Wisconsin border. Stop at Mauston again--let some out, put some in, and ride ride ride. Back in Minneapolis a time later. Drop the trailer back at the BMC and bobtail back to the rental place. Drag my stuff out of the cab into my car trunk, throw the keys in the drop box and thank God I don't do this for a living. Get in my car and drop my bills and logbook off at the dispatcher's office. Head back home to wait for my wife to get off work and catch a snooze. And then go to work on Monday to my DAY JOB and do it all over again. Tuesday or Wednesday the check shows up...usually I'd clear about $200 or so for my little 28-hour jaunt. But was it worth it hurtling 80,000 lbs. of steel down the freeway at 65 MPH when I could barely keep my eyes open? Ah the things we do for the almighty dollar. Suffice to say I'm glad I don't have to do that anymore just to keep the creditors away. But at least I had three or four hour stretches where I could "listen to the engine moanin' out his one note song" and ponder the quandaries of life. That's when a good number of my previous Battle Angel Alita fan fiction ideas were tossed around in my mind, in fact. --me Mark Engels
97
« on: May 10, 2003, 09:10:23 pm »
And thanks, Saucer. I could've blown a gasket if I didn't get at least a little support.
I've been reading this thread with interest (at least at those times I'm not contributing to it.) I find myself grinning with amusement, but certainly not at the expense of any of my esteemed list members. What I find amusing is the fact that I've felt all the emotions expressed here at one point or other in my life. Rob, Kathy, Saucer...I've had the same things said to me at one point or other. So when I say I can empthasize, please accept my statement at face value. And the ironic thing is I found myself on the other end as well. I found myself in one relationship I HAD to get out of. And the execution thereof didn't really go down as I would have liked. But what we all expect from one another, anyway? It's not like there's a goddamn field manual explaining how relationships are supposed to work, you know! "Oh, waitiaminit, I think I saw that in section three *fliiiiiiiiip*!" All those times I found myself saying "well this and this and that happened to me and I'll never do that to someone else..." I have to tell you, friends, never is a LONG time. If the circumstances predicate, you may find yourself doing similar things to someone else that were done to you. But then something truly remarkable happened. I understood. I figured out WHY that other person did what they did. And that more than anything else helped me carry on and go forward. Now that I knew what it was like to walk on the other side of the fence, I knew for certain that I could begin building healthy relationships. Amazing thing I discovered is that when it rains, it pours. There was one young woman I met through my theatre troupe that started to come onto me despite the fact she was cohabitating (and in a relationship with) a friend of mine. (I'm NOT being narcissistic here folks, believe me, I'm not that good looking!) I sat her down soon afterward and told her she'd have to find someone else to be her back door man. That's not the way I play. Shortly after that she lost interest in me. I got a call a month afterward saying she was engaged to her boss at the casino she worked at. Geez. Then I met and started dating the woman who would later become my wife. My "old girlfriend", as fate would have it after quitting the troupe and the casino had started bussing tables in the dinner theatre venue where my troupe performed. Immediately after my farewell performance, she ran up to me and mentioned she'd left her boss from the casino and "could we get together again tonight?" (Again? I didn't remember the first time!) She hadn't gotten the knot in my tie undone when I stuttered "T-tracy, th-there's someone I want y-you to m-meet." And I introduced her to Sonia, who from the look she was giving Tracy was about to deck her in about thirty seconds. "My girlfriend and I have plans tonight. See you around," I said and promptly ushered Sonia out of there. And that was the last time I saw Tracy, almost ten years ago to the day. See, I'd met Sonia *after* I'd resigned myself that I simply didn't care anymore if I was in a relationship. That was the first time, at age 22, that I'd been able to say that since the first time I'd been let down (I think I was about 14 or so) and really, really mean it. I'd pursued (yeah, that's a good way to describe what I did) more than one young woman with whom I happened to have something in common (either one or more of classwork, campus ministry, theatre troupe, martial arts, Corps of Engineers job, you get the idea) and had been told the equivalent of "no, not interested" every time. (I've heard it expressed in a good many ways too, the same tag lines you all have written about, in fact.) So finally I just quit trying. I began enjoying doing things by myself and with my friends. Maybe it was the fact I wasn't so needly and clingy anymore that permitted me to meet Sonia on equal terms; to wit, I'm sure the Fates introduced me to Tracy to have shown to me how uncomfortable I had made other young women. Sonia and I were married four years later. Two of those years I drove five hours one way to see her every weekend. I was living in Detroit working as an automation technician and she was still up in The Soo at Lake State. Those of you who are married know the drill...honeymoon the first year, fight like cats and dogs for a couple years afterward, and then find your even keel. We'll have been at it six years in September. I think we've finally planed out now. My leaving the computer business and getting a railroad job is probably the single biggest reason we're still married. I didn't realize how much I hated working in the computer field until it dawned on me I made too damn much money to leave. But the business environment after Enron, September 11 and the dot-com correction made up my mind for me. Don't get me wrong--it's gruelling work out here on the railroad and I've got some, well, "interesting" people I have to deal with (i.e., tolerate.) But I wouldn't have it any other way. I enjoy the work and know every day it's consistent with who I am and what I was meant to be. And that's probably where I'm going with this whole thread. When I finally figured out who I was and what I was all about, I was able to make decisions to get my entire life back in line. But that happened over the course of several years after making lots of mistakes. When I would go to job interviews and I would be asked "why did you hop around so often from one jb to another every six months to a year?" I would reply "part of figuring out what you want to do is first figuring out what you DON'T want to do." But that applies to more than just one's livelihood. Dare I say the same could be said about every part of our lives, relationships included (relationships in particular!) And so it is with us all, my friends. Each of us at some point in our lives are going to be hurt, and each of us at some point is going to hurt someone else. It's all a manner of degree, really. I do hope, however, that each of us (myself included) will be open to the maturity and wisdom that comes with living our lives and learning from the lessons life teaches. Welcome to the School of Hard Knocks, everyone, where the classes run 24/7 now right up until "Graduation Day." What will happen to each of us after we walk that Green Mile is a topic for another thread, my friends. But until that day comes, ask yourselves just what kind of life will each of *you* live? Will the fires each of us must at some time pass through temper you with wisdom and compassion, or make you brittle with bitterness? Which shall you choose? --me Mark Engels
98
« on: May 10, 2003, 09:10:23 pm »
And thanks, Saucer. I could've blown a gasket if I didn't get at least a little support.
I've been reading this thread with interest (at least at those times I'm not contributing to it.) I find myself grinning with amusement, but certainly not at the expense of any of my esteemed list members. What I find amusing is the fact that I've felt all the emotions expressed here at one point or other in my life. Rob, Kathy, Saucer...I've had the same things said to me at one point or other. So when I say I can empthasize, please accept my statement at face value. And the ironic thing is I found myself on the other end as well. I found myself in one relationship I HAD to get out of. And the execution thereof didn't really go down as I would have liked. But what we all expect from one another, anyway? It's not like there's a goddamn field manual explaining how relationships are supposed to work, you know! "Oh, waitiaminit, I think I saw that in section three *fliiiiiiiiip*!" All those times I found myself saying "well this and this and that happened to me and I'll never do that to someone else..." I have to tell you, friends, never is a LONG time. If the circumstances predicate, you may find yourself doing similar things to someone else that were done to you. But then something truly remarkable happened. I understood. I figured out WHY that other person did what they did. And that more than anything else helped me carry on and go forward. Now that I knew what it was like to walk on the other side of the fence, I knew for certain that I could begin building healthy relationships. Amazing thing I discovered is that when it rains, it pours. There was one young woman I met through my theatre troupe that started to come onto me despite the fact she was cohabitating (and in a relationship with) a friend of mine. (I'm NOT being narcissistic here folks, believe me, I'm not that good looking!) I sat her down soon afterward and told her she'd have to find someone else to be her back door man. That's not the way I play. Shortly after that she lost interest in me. I got a call a month afterward saying she was engaged to her boss at the casino she worked at. Geez. Then I met and started dating the woman who would later become my wife. My "old girlfriend", as fate would have it after quitting the troupe and the casino had started bussing tables in the dinner theatre venue where my troupe performed. Immediately after my farewell performance, she ran up to me and mentioned she'd left her boss from the casino and "could we get together again tonight?" (Again? I didn't remember the first time!) She hadn't gotten the knot in my tie undone when I stuttered "T-tracy, th-there's someone I want y-you to m-meet." And I introduced her to Sonia, who from the look she was giving Tracy was about to deck her in about thirty seconds. "My girlfriend and I have plans tonight. See you around," I said and promptly ushered Sonia out of there. And that was the last time I saw Tracy, almost ten years ago to the day. See, I'd met Sonia *after* I'd resigned myself that I simply didn't care anymore if I was in a relationship. That was the first time, at age 22, that I'd been able to say that since the first time I'd been let down (I think I was about 14 or so) and really, really mean it. I'd pursued (yeah, that's a good way to describe what I did) more than one young woman with whom I happened to have something in common (either one or more of classwork, campus ministry, theatre troupe, martial arts, Corps of Engineers job, you get the idea) and had been told the equivalent of "no, not interested" every time. (I've heard it expressed in a good many ways too, the same tag lines you all have written about, in fact.) So finally I just quit trying. I began enjoying doing things by myself and with my friends. Maybe it was the fact I wasn't so needly and clingy anymore that permitted me to meet Sonia on equal terms; to wit, I'm sure the Fates introduced me to Tracy to have shown to me how uncomfortable I had made other young women. Sonia and I were married four years later. Two of those years I drove five hours one way to see her every weekend. I was living in Detroit working as an automation technician and she was still up in The Soo at Lake State. Those of you who are married know the drill...honeymoon the first year, fight like cats and dogs for a couple years afterward, and then find your even keel. We'll have been at it six years in September. I think we've finally planed out now. My leaving the computer business and getting a railroad job is probably the single biggest reason we're still married. I didn't realize how much I hated working in the computer field until it dawned on me I made too damn much money to leave. But the business environment after Enron, September 11 and the dot-com correction made up my mind for me. Don't get me wrong--it's gruelling work out here on the railroad and I've got some, well, "interesting" people I have to deal with (i.e., tolerate.) But I wouldn't have it any other way. I enjoy the work and know every day it's consistent with who I am and what I was meant to be. And that's probably where I'm going with this whole thread. When I finally figured out who I was and what I was all about, I was able to make decisions to get my entire life back in line. But that happened over the course of several years after making lots of mistakes. When I would go to job interviews and I would be asked "why did you hop around so often from one jb to another every six months to a year?" I would reply "part of figuring out what you want to do is first figuring out what you DON'T want to do." But that applies to more than just one's livelihood. Dare I say the same could be said about every part of our lives, relationships included (relationships in particular!) And so it is with us all, my friends. Each of us at some point in our lives are going to be hurt, and each of us at some point is going to hurt someone else. It's all a manner of degree, really. I do hope, however, that each of us (myself included) will be open to the maturity and wisdom that comes with living our lives and learning from the lessons life teaches. Welcome to the School of Hard Knocks, everyone, where the classes run 24/7 now right up until "Graduation Day." What will happen to each of us after we walk that Green Mile is a topic for another thread, my friends. But until that day comes, ask yourselves just what kind of life will each of *you* live? Will the fires each of us must at some time pass through temper you with wisdom and compassion, or make you brittle with bitterness? Which shall you choose? --me Mark Engels
99
« on: May 09, 2003, 03:30:50 pm »
For the curious, it's this image.
Ironically, that's the same image that's on the cover of the El Hazard RPG by Guardians of Order.
And that sums up that day. I only wore it a second time after, and I don't remember evicting much reponse from anyone.
Actually, I have a pile of shirts I save for "special occasions." My Anime Iowa 98 shirt featured a pict drawn by Steven Bennett IV of Studio Ironkat with the tounge in cheek theme "we're not in Kansas anymore, Toto." I only wear it around the house except for those rare occasions I go to cons (especially Anime Iowa as 98 was only the cons second year.) I got another AI shirt in 01 which looked like the logo from the movie A.I. save for the silhouetted gamine form sports a pony tail. My Evangelion shirt sports a NERV logo. I wore it to ACen one year with a NERV baseball cap, black cargo trousers and my tool belt, passing myself off as an Eva mechanic. I was working for a telecommunications equipment OEM in Oakland, California in the fall of 2000 when I wore the shirt to work (everyone else wore T-shirts at this place so I thought maybe I'd try to troll for some other kindred spirits.) As it turned out I was asked to interview a candidate that day who immediately recognized the NERV logo and spoke for a few minutes with me after his interview was done about anime. We never hired that guy for some reason. Damn. (I was glad to shake the dust of that little company off my boots anyway.) Oh, wait, that had nothing at all to do with EH, did it? Gomen nasai, minna (which for the nihongo-challenged among you means "forgive me everyone") --me Mark Engels
100
« on: May 09, 2003, 01:40:59 pm »
For those of you new to this topic, it started out over in my thread on Anime Central. I was relating a story in which Ken Wolfe and I got together in Fargo, ND one time simply because it was about halfway between Winnipeg and Minneapolis. I became a little uncomfortable with some of the glances being turned our way as I was reading through one of the EH art books he brought. Then I realized the back cover had that rather...er..."revealing" picture of Rune on it with Ifurita. We found a table large enough to lay the thing out flat to take care of that problem.
Sorry, but that is pretty funny 
I'm not quite sure who's sick idea that was. I mean, granted I usually miss the point in Japanese symbolism, but that one is just out there.
Of course, I'm assuming this is the bugger:
Ah yes. That is the one.
As I heard, my sister jumped in disgust upon discovering that little tidbit when she found that Viz had released volume 3 of the manga series.
What makes it so dirty even is this page which depicts Rune and Ifurita making amends between themselves. And then "friends" is taken to a whole new level. But now I'm falling way off topic...
You are demented, sir! Actually that same pict appeared on the front cover of one of the original Japanese manga Ken had brought with him for me to look at. Viz had just started releasing the translation so I didn't look too closely inside lest it spoil the story. But when I saw the third volume I proclaimed "Viz will NEVER put this on the cover of a graphic novel or a loose comic." Much to my suprise then the third volume of the loose comic started coming out and there it was (on Vol 3. nr. 4 if memory serves. They're all in boxes right now in the basement.) And there it was on the manga shelf about the right height for eight-year old eyes to see. I'm suprised there wasn't an angry mob surrounding the comic store afterward! Ken got a bit of a laugh out of that, as did the entire EHFC over on Yahoo groups. And as if to press the point the same pict came out on the cover of the third EH GN as you point out below. Given some of Kathy's earlier posts I can understand why she blew a gasket upon seeing it. Hey, *I* felt uncomfortable just buying the thing! Thankfully all the folks in the comic shop knew me by first name when I bought them. However, I did make DAMN sure there were no mothers around buying Pokemon cards for their kids when I walked up to the counter with the thing. Believe it or not an engineering manager with one of the companies I contracted to was in the store at the time buying cards for her own kids at the time. Needless to say I was sweating bullets. Ah, the things we do for the fandom. --me Mark Engels
101
« on: May 09, 2003, 11:20:55 am »
No, sorry, I'm pretty much booked at least thru mid-June. Keep after me, though, and we'll probably run into each other one of these days.
Don't MAKE me have to come to Springfield, Adcock. Actually, I've never been there. Maybe if I get the gumption to visit my kin folk in St. Louis I'll let you know.
Not much of a socializer, I'm afraid.
This message board is by far the most Internet socializing I've done since I quit Usenet and all my old mailing lists in the mid-1990s. Don't you all feel lucky
Actually, I do, because you have a lot of insightful commentary to contribute. And the primary reason I have for going to cons at all anymore is to have chance to meet folks up until that time I'd only had chance to meet over the Internet in a setting where we wouldn't get strange looks for leafing through a copy of Etranger. Ken Wolfe and I got together in Fargo, ND once simply because it was about halfway between Winnipeg and Minneapolis. I felt a little uncomfortable with some of the glances being turned our way as I was reading through one of the EH art books he brought. Then I realized the back cover had that rather...er..."revealing" picture of Rune on it with Ifurita. We found a table large enough to lay the thing out flat to take care of that problem.
On the other hand, it might be fun to get some EH people together at one of those Chicago conventions, and have a mini-El-Hazard convention. I think several of us are living in and around the midwest USA.
I don't know about 'mini-con' but certainly a chance to hang out in the con suite and get to know each other better. Who knows who might join in on the EH conversation? The only bummer is I'm pretty sure most EH (and Pioneer) VAs don't make it to the Midwest being out on the left coast and all. ADV VAs on the other hand are a Midwest con staple. In fact, I see that one of the guests at this years ACen is Monical Rial. I'm a great fan of the Princess Nice anime and though her rendition of the angsty and catty Izumi Hino was a stellar performance. Usually it's Tifanny Grant who ends up playing the angsty teenage heroine (to wit, Asuka Langley Soyhru from Eva) but in P9 she was the vain and flightly Yoko Takashigi (and will also be an ACen guest.) Fans of the series might be interested to know Ms. Grant was originally cast and recorded as our favorite bookworm Kanako Mina (who given the Charlie Brown fandom here will cetainly exclaim "that's Marcie!" should they ever take time to watch P9.) Ah but I digress. Maybe we can ride together to Anime Iowa in the fall. AI is by far the most enjoyable con I've been to. It's large enough to attract some big name guests (The Right Stuff IS based in Des Moines, after all) and small enough to have a very freindly feel to it. The guests at AI usually hang out with the congoers rather than being surrounded by the goon squads I've seen at a few other cons. As for your self-depricating comments w.r.t. MWN, I suppose I'll have to read it again to know from whence you speak (as I do recall there is an SI portion therein.) Your EH fict work has been solid and enjoyable, however, and certainly timely to breathe new life into the fandom. --me Mark Engels
102
« on: May 09, 2003, 10:09:57 am »
If they weren't just immature 8th grade males I'd have a fit... unfortunately... guys don't get much better when they are older :p
With guys it's all chicks and football even when they get "older..." :p
Heh. I think you're painting with an awfully wide brush there, Kathy. Some conversations I've had with Rob via email suggest that in many ways I was much like him when I was in high school. I was interested in science and trains and Robotech (which was before I even knew what the word "anime" meant) which didn't mix well with the prevailing demographics. Mellencamp could have written a song about the sleepy little Michigan town I hailed from. In school if you weren't a football player or a cheerleader, you were pretty much nobody. And my interests made me something of an outcast, for my passion about railroading was seen by many to be an obsession. And that pretty much was the way it was during my first two years of college. My interests did expand, however. I did a few different things, including volunteering with the Catholic Newman Center as a vocalist and liturgist and auditioning for the on-campus theatre troupe. (By the time I left college I had become president of the parish council and headlined my farewell performance.) I also became an avid role-player. This gave me an opportunity to make new friends and expand my horizons. Getting to meet members of the other gender who had interests and values similiar to my own was a decent perk too. And the last two years I was in college saw a great transformation. By the time I was a junior, I realized that of the two hundred or so starting freshmen there were only about two dozen or so of us left. So we all started paling around together. And being that we had all just turned 21 within the past year it made for some wild times. There were a lot of nights we tied one on a little TOO tightly, and we did more than a little skirt-chasing. But when senior thesis finally came around we all knew we had to knuckle down. Our late nights on the town were replaced by late nights in the electronics lab or hunched over our drafting tables. By then I had started working as a draftsman part time at the Soo Locks so that required at least 20 hours a week of my time during which I had to be at least somewhat cognisant. (There were a few mornings I was a little foggy, all the while resolving to myself to NEVER do THAT again!) While I don't regret having the chance to live wild and crazy for a little while, I am grateful that I've left that lifestyle behind me. The bars were full of people in their forties who hadn't and the wear was beginning to show on their faces. My last six months in college I met the woman who four years later would become my wife. I had returned to my "serious student" MO by then. She had had several encounters with men much like how Kathy describes above and was almost all but turned off to anyone. We met through common friends and got to know each other. Shortly thereafter, however, I got my sheepskin and promptly lost my job at the Locks. So I headed south toward Detroit to seek my fortune. (I can empathize with anyone doing the "distance relationship" thing!) I'll spare you the details of what happened in the ten years hence, though the email I sent Rob for his college paper showed my maturation process had only just begun. And so I think it is with many men, Kathy. Almost all of us that were hootin' and hollerin' back in the day now have full-time jobs, mortgages, and children. Those things tend to change one's point of view about oneself and the world we live in. I daresay it changes people's priorities, in my opinion for the better. It's all part of the maturation process I'm glad to say I've surrendered to. One observation I've made about anime fans is that they're markedly different from the mainstream in their values and priorities. Just about all the anime fans I know have been to college and afterward land decent jobs. And this forum , which caters to the fandom of a very thought-provoking anime series such as El Hazard, seems to consist of people who contrast starkly to the picture you paint, Kathy. Heh. Dare I say "preaching to the choir?" With respect to football: although I'd be remiss not to mention that while I don't care for football, basketball or baseball I am an avid hockey fan. I do hope you'll believe me it's not the fights I like, in fact, I usually enjoy watching college hockey more because the fights are not sensationalized and made a spectacle of. I love to watch when a good squad can get their passing game down pat and it just clicks, much to the chagrin of yon hapless goalie. It's a game where teamwork is necessary and if executed brilliantly can pay off big time. Of course, my Lake Superior State Lakers finished nearly dead last in the CCHA and my Red Wings were brushed off the ice in four straight by the DUCKS for GOD'S SAKE! So it hasn't been a good hockey season for me.  Glad I have El Hazard to talk about! Personally I'd rather enjoy seeing a fan rendition of Ifurita dressed for the bench. I think she'd make a killer left wing. Could you imagine a Demon-God slapshot? I pity the poor goalie that would try to bat away one of those.
Sometimes I think that if I knew what the world was like when I was younger I would have developed my BODY instead of my MIND... heh but I made my choice and I guess I'm better for it... though sometimes I wonder...
I actually avoided military service because I didn't think I had the physical muster to be able to survive boot camp (being the short stocky smart kid I used to be.) Ironically, today my work as a signalman requires I work outside in all kinds of weather engaged in physically gruelling activity--digging trenches, pulling cable (some of it the diameter of my wrist,) unloading trucks, spreading stone and the like. Six months ago I wondered if I would be able to handle it but now know I can do this if I pace myself and don't try to be a superhero. In that respect I feel I've come full circle, though I don't believe I still could do a hundred pushups without feeling it later.
No one wants the 3.92 GPA, summa cum laude, National Honor Society, college grad, girl... they want the easy chick who works in the beauty parlor... feh
Heh. I didn't know you knew my high school class! In fact, many of the young women I knew back then fit the description you provide. And when I do visit my hometown and encounter one or more of them, I believe I'm better off where I ended up. There's a song out there called "Thank God For Unanswered Prayers" which usually plays in the back of my mind whenever I find myself back there.
I'm glad YOU see that there's a problem with that kind of thinking Tim... but then... you're a smart guy who focuses on developing his mind like I did... that and you know I'd beat the snot out of you for disrespecting women ^_^ -- one of these days I'm gonna pop Joe one... (our youngest brother for those who don't know).
Strapping young lad who thinks he's all that, eh? I can relate. If you ever put my brother and I together you'd never know we were even distantly related. He's in his late 20's now, about to finish his apprenticeship as a union plumber. Just about all the life lessons I mention above he has yet to learn. He lives in our grandparent's old house (they both passed away recently) though I'm dubious of whether he's actually making his house payment or drinking it away on the weekends. And I'm sick of HIS creditors calling ME and threatening me to have him pay them. (That seemed to cease after I sicked my attorney on them.) Maybe I'm just jealous that I never had a chance to live for two wild and crazy weeks in Cancun. Although it occurs to me maybe I'm better off for having NOT been there.
Stick with the smart girls Tim... you'll be better for it... no one will fight you for 'em for one ^_^;
I'm awfully glad I did. When I listen to my coworkers complain about their wives spending their money and running around while they're out here on the gang, I feel very lucky to have ended up with a small town girl like mine who knows the value of a dollar and has a good head on her shoulders. Your message is a sound one, Kathy. I do suppose, however, that any man who is a member of this forum already believes much the same way you do. That doesn't make the message any less meaningful, in my opinion. (Yes, I have three day weekends and my wife is at work today. So I have lots of time to mull over life's little quandaries.) --me Mark Engels
103
« on: May 09, 2003, 10:09:57 am »
If they weren't just immature 8th grade males I'd have a fit... unfortunately... guys don't get much better when they are older :p
With guys it's all chicks and football even when they get "older..." :p
Heh. I think you're painting with an awfully wide brush there, Kathy. Some conversations I've had with Rob via email suggest that in many ways I was much like him when I was in high school. I was interested in science and trains and Robotech (which was before I even knew what the word "anime" meant) which didn't mix well with the prevailing demographics. Mellencamp could have written a song about the sleepy little Michigan town I hailed from. In school if you weren't a football player or a cheerleader, you were pretty much nobody. And my interests made me something of an outcast, for my passion about railroading was seen by many to be an obsession. And that pretty much was the way it was during my first two years of college. My interests did expand, however. I did a few different things, including volunteering with the Catholic Newman Center as a vocalist and liturgist and auditioning for the on-campus theatre troupe. (By the time I left college I had become president of the parish council and headlined my farewell performance.) I also became an avid role-player. This gave me an opportunity to make new friends and expand my horizons. Getting to meet members of the other gender who had interests and values similiar to my own was a decent perk too. And the last two years I was in college saw a great transformation. By the time I was a junior, I realized that of the two hundred or so starting freshmen there were only about two dozen or so of us left. So we all started paling around together. And being that we had all just turned 21 within the past year it made for some wild times. There were a lot of nights we tied one on a little TOO tightly, and we did more than a little skirt-chasing. But when senior thesis finally came around we all knew we had to knuckle down. Our late nights on the town were replaced by late nights in the electronics lab or hunched over our drafting tables. By then I had started working as a draftsman part time at the Soo Locks so that required at least 20 hours a week of my time during which I had to be at least somewhat cognisant. (There were a few mornings I was a little foggy, all the while resolving to myself to NEVER do THAT again!) While I don't regret having the chance to live wild and crazy for a little while, I am grateful that I've left that lifestyle behind me. The bars were full of people in their forties who hadn't and the wear was beginning to show on their faces. My last six months in college I met the woman who four years later would become my wife. I had returned to my "serious student" MO by then. She had had several encounters with men much like how Kathy describes above and was almost all but turned off to anyone. We met through common friends and got to know each other. Shortly thereafter, however, I got my sheepskin and promptly lost my job at the Locks. So I headed south toward Detroit to seek my fortune. (I can empathize with anyone doing the "distance relationship" thing!) I'll spare you the details of what happened in the ten years hence, though the email I sent Rob for his college paper showed my maturation process had only just begun. And so I think it is with many men, Kathy. Almost all of us that were hootin' and hollerin' back in the day now have full-time jobs, mortgages, and children. Those things tend to change one's point of view about oneself and the world we live in. I daresay it changes people's priorities, in my opinion for the better. It's all part of the maturation process I'm glad to say I've surrendered to. One observation I've made about anime fans is that they're markedly different from the mainstream in their values and priorities. Just about all the anime fans I know have been to college and afterward land decent jobs. And this forum , which caters to the fandom of a very thought-provoking anime series such as El Hazard, seems to consist of people who contrast starkly to the picture you paint, Kathy. Heh. Dare I say "preaching to the choir?" With respect to football: although I'd be remiss not to mention that while I don't care for football, basketball or baseball I am an avid hockey fan. I do hope you'll believe me it's not the fights I like, in fact, I usually enjoy watching college hockey more because the fights are not sensationalized and made a spectacle of. I love to watch when a good squad can get their passing game down pat and it just clicks, much to the chagrin of yon hapless goalie. It's a game where teamwork is necessary and if executed brilliantly can pay off big time. Of course, my Lake Superior State Lakers finished nearly dead last in the CCHA and my Red Wings were brushed off the ice in four straight by the DUCKS for GOD'S SAKE! So it hasn't been a good hockey season for me. Glad I have El Hazard to talk about! Personally I'd rather enjoy seeing a fan rendition of Ifurita dressed for the bench. I think she'd make a killer left wing. Could you imagine a Demon-God slapshot? I pity the poor goalie that would try to bat away one of those.
Sometimes I think that if I knew what the world was like when I was younger I would have developed my BODY instead of my MIND... heh but I made my choice and I guess I'm better for it... though sometimes I wonder...
I actually avoided military service because I didn't think I had the physical muster to be able to survive boot camp (being the short stocky smart kid I used to be.) Ironically, today my work as a signalman requires I work outside in all kinds of weather engaged in physically gruelling activity--digging trenches, pulling cable (some of it the diameter of my wrist,) unloading trucks, spreading stone and the like. Six months ago I wondered if I would be able to handle it but now know I can do this if I pace myself and don't try to be a superhero. In that respect I feel I've come full circle, though I don't believe I still could do a hundred pushups without feeling it later.
No one wants the 3.92 GPA, summa cum laude, National Honor Society, college grad, girl... they want the easy chick who works in the beauty parlor... feh
Heh. I didn't know you knew my high school class! In fact, many of the young women I knew back then fit the description you provide. And when I do visit my hometown and encounter one or more of them, I believe I'm better off where I ended up. There's a song out there called "Thank God For Unanswered Prayers" which usually plays in the back of my mind whenever I find myself back there.
I'm glad YOU see that there's a problem with that kind of thinking Tim... but then... you're a smart guy who focuses on developing his mind like I did... that and you know I'd beat the snot out of you for disrespecting women ^_^ -- one of these days I'm gonna pop Joe one... (our youngest brother for those who don't know).
Strapping young lad who thinks he's all that, eh? I can relate. If you ever put my brother and I together you'd never know we were even distantly related. He's in his late 20's now, about to finish his apprenticeship as a union plumber. Just about all the life lessons I mention above he has yet to learn. He lives in our grandparent's old house (they both passed away recently) though I'm dubious of whether he's actually making his house payment or drinking it away on the weekends. And I'm sick of HIS creditors calling ME and threatening me to have him pay them. (That seemed to cease after I sicked my attorney on them.) Maybe I'm just jealous that I never had a chance to live for two wild and crazy weeks in Cancun. Although it occurs to me maybe I'm better off for having NOT been there.
Stick with the smart girls Tim... you'll be better for it... no one will fight you for 'em for one ^_^;
I'm awfully glad I did. When I listen to my coworkers complain about their wives spending their money and running around while they're out here on the gang, I feel very lucky to have ended up with a small town girl like mine who knows the value of a dollar and has a good head on her shoulders. Your message is a sound one, Kathy. I do suppose, however, that any man who is a member of this forum already believes much the same way you do. That doesn't make the message any less meaningful, in my opinion. (Yes, I have three day weekends and my wife is at work today. So I have lots of time to mull over life's little quandaries.) --me Mark Engels
104
« on: May 07, 2003, 07:23:59 pm »
is happening May 16-18. I live in northwestern Indiana so may well head over there for the day. http://www.acen.org/main.htmlMight I see any other EHOL listers there? *cough*Adcock*cough* All work and no play, you know... Of late when I go to anime cons its usually to hang out with other fictwriters and make some new friends. Maybe it's just me--dealer's tables don't hold much interest for me anymore (save for that rare EH or Eva trinket I might pick up. These days I'm into hat badges, pins, and patches. Does anyone know if one was ever made of the Roshtarian double-sun crest?) Fictwriting panels are sometimes interesting to sit in upon, especially (as was the case the last time I was at Anime Iowa) when the panelists are not fictwriters themselves. The best part was I didn't even have to open my mouth before someone recognised several of my wider known fictwriter bretheren; pretty soon the panel revolved more around them than the original panel. --me Mark Engels
105
« on: May 07, 2003, 07:16:50 pm »
Received a similar email, Rob. I drew much the same conclusions you did through my own inspection. We all know the place to come talk about EH, right? --me Mark Engels
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