The Confession Booth: Post something very personal about yourself

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

No, Grumps just the Mods (and that one particular Greek guy), other than your favorite, Muon2 of course, over whom you just gush.

Have you put up anything more juicy about yourself that I might have missed? I'm waiting.

I have had the pleasure of meeting muon2, The Mikado and the Badg from the mod team.  Yeah, I do have a fondness for all 3......very upstanding gentlemen.    I've met Franzl......wonderful lad, in spite of his horrible politics.  Of course J.J. is my friend and I'll be seeing him this weekend and next weekend, and I'm meeting another Atlasian on my way to Malvern this Friday.  So maybe not "everyone".  

And doing worry about my juicy stuff, K?  Thx.  

[Torie]

No, Grumps just the Mods (and that one particular Greek guy), other than your favorite, Muon2 of course, over whom you just gush.

Have you put up anything more juicy about yourself that I might have missed? I'm waiting.

I have had the pleasure of meeting muon2, The Mikado and the Badg from the mod team.  Yeah, I do have a fondness for all 3......very upstanding gentlemen.    I've met Franzl......wonderful lad, in spite of his horrible politics.  Of course J.J. is my friend and I'll be seeing him this weekend and next weekend, and I'm meeting another Atlasian on my way to Malvern this Friday.  So maybe not "everyone".  

And doing worry about my juicy stuff, K?  Thx.  

Somebody is visiting their money at Vanguard?  Didn't know you met The Mikado. Is he as "odd" in real life as on this Forum? jk Mikado. For a lawyer, Badj is indeed reasonably tolerable I admit. What does "doing worry" mean?  I understand the concept of "doing" somebody, but doing worry?

[Fmr. Pres. Duke]

Grumps is already hitting the bottle. Someone call the doctor!

[Grumpier Than Uncle Joe]

No, Grumps just the Mods (and that one particular Greek guy), other than your favorite, Muon2 of course, over whom you just gush.

Have you put up anything more juicy about yourself that I might have missed? I'm waiting.

I have had the pleasure of meeting muon2, The Mikado and the Badg from the mod team.  Yeah, I do have a fondness for all 3......very upstanding gentlemen.    I've met Franzl......wonderful lad, in spite of his horrible politics.  Of course J.J. is my friend and I'll be seeing him this weekend and next weekend, and I'm meeting another Atlasian on my way to Malvern this Friday.  So maybe not "everyone".  

And doing worry about my juicy stuff, K?  Thx.  

Somebody is visiting their money at Vanguard?  Didn't know you met The Mikado. Is he as "odd" in real life as on this Forum? jk Mikado. For a lawyer, Badj is indeed reasonably tolerable I admit. What does "doing worry" mean?  I understand the concept of "doing" somebody, but doing worry?

Ok typo boy "And don't worry about my juicy stuff, K?  Thx."

Uh, nope, a gathering of parliamentarians, but since I'm driving nearby to one of our Atlasian's place of employment we'll either hook up for coffee or lunch.

What's odd about calling The Mikado odd?    He's a fine fellow, I assure you, and yes he's as brilliant as he sounds in threads where he's being serious.   The Badg is just a transplanted Pittsburgher.....salt of the earth person (for a lawyer)

[Snowstalker Mk. II]

I watch Fox News fairly frequently for the lulz.

[ilikeverin]

Slowly reading through the thread, but had to stop to make a particular post:


ILV! *hughughug*


Welcome

Admission of still being a virgin is admitting of something very personal?

If you post on Atlas, there's 80% chance you're yet to get laid.

Except the gays, who either seem to be married and/or having regular sex

Hey, I'm not having— wait crap I am, kind of, now, maybe.  To a certain extent.  It's hard to adjust to actually dating.  Suffice it to say, kids, if you're distressed by your inexperience, I can assure you that there is hope on the horizon, and it is known as the Internet.  I had gone no further than a friendly hug with either sex before January (that, my 269th month upon the Earth), and now that is not the case.

Confession: there's this guy I've been dating for about a month, and he keeps repeatedly insisting he wants me to be his boyfriend, and even though I had always thought I would be one to rush into things I'm the one putting the breaks on and being like "I AM EXCEEDINGLY INEXPERIENCED, WE SHOULD PROBABLY TAKE THIS SLOWER THAN YOU WANT US TO" and it's very odd and kind of frustrating even though I think he's a really great guy and I always enjoy the time I spend with him.  And now he's come down with mono and I'm almost a little relieved because at the very least his immune system will now be telling him to slow things down rather than just me.   (But that means I will have to start avoiding him to make it so I don't come down with mono myself, unless he's already infected me, in which case I'm in for a miserable April/May.)  Yet my sort-of pleasure makes me guilty.

Also, I'm one of the gays.  But it's not a confession if no one is surprised.

I only found this post thanks to Hugh.

And then I looked up what "mono" was. I knew it under its German name...

*hughughug*

[MASHED POTATOES. VOTE!]

I'm thinking about assaulting Joe Republic.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

I'm thinking about assaulting Joe Republic.

Aw I miss Teddy

[free my dawg]

On this day, one year ago, I almost killed myself.

My anxiety was at its peak last year (that resulted in me missing around around 25-30 days of school not counting sick days) and took its toll on my grades to the point where my graduation was in danger. My mother wasn't private at all about it (specifically telling family, her friends, and even my friends), and it started spreading to kids at school. I thought I wasn't going to graduate, so I started getting suicidal thoughts. When I told my father about my thoughts, he thought I was faking them to "play video games and f(inks) around on the computer all day". After hearing my dad basically say that I don't even have the fortitude to kill myself, I decided to scrap the makeup work I had to do, write an elaborate suicide note,  tell my friends goodbye, and after, hang myself from one of the towel hooks in the bathroom.

I remember at the time I went back to school the note had three pages and was around 80% complete. It had a message to everyone explaining the reason why I did it, the wishes for my funeral, and another message telling everyone not to "throw away their gifts" like I did, to keep on living, and that I would say hi to the kids that died for everyone. After I went to bed, I was forced back to school, where my mind wandered from killing myself.

Long story short, after that, I pulled myself out of this funk I was in, told my therapist about my problems with school, made a plan to graduate with him, and after working my ass off for six weeks, I graduated high school with my class and started my year off from school. Looking back on this past year after graduation, I had a few flings (couldn't quite seal the deal with either of the girls), got a job that turned out to be the best summer/fall of my life, met a countless amount of new people, got to shake the president's hand, grew a great friendship with my now-best friend, found the Atlas, and, of course, got accepted to my top choice for college.

Is that a life worth living? I'd say it is.

[Grumpier Than Thou]

Jesus, man...

I know what it's like to be at that absolute low of lows and I can say that you're a very strong individual for pulling out of that. It seems as though you're recovering well, which is nice to see. Best of luck in college

[RI]

I don't like most people here and generally have grown to despise political discourse in general; I only stay for maps and to play devil's advocate as often as possible in order to try to inject something interesting into this teenager-white-upper-middle-class-male-socially-liberal-to-libertarian-atheist echo chamber by challenging assumptions and finding contradictions in beliefs. I probably take it too far some times, but it's really hard for me to care anymore; as my real life has fallen into place, this distraction just doesn't matter much to me.

[Torie]

I have now just had to start on one of those old people's drugs that is shown of Fox News so often. 

[minionofmidas]

I don't like most people here and generally have grown to despise political discourse in general; I only stay for maps and to play devil's advocate as often as possible in order to try to inject something interesting into this teenager-white-upper-middle-class-male-socially-liberal-to-libertarian-atheist echo chamber by challenging assumptions and finding contradictions in beliefs. I probably take it too far some times, but it's really hard for me to care anymore; as my real life has fallen into place, this distraction just doesn't matter much to me.

But it's not a confession if no one is surprised.

*hughughug* We're just glad and thankful that you keep posting anyways.

[Torie]

I don't like most people here and generally have grown to despise political discourse in general; I only stay for maps and to play devil's advocate as often as possible in order to try to inject something interesting into this teenager-white-upper-middle-class-male-socially-liberal-to-libertarian-atheist echo chamber by challenging assumptions and finding contradictions in beliefs. I probably take it too far some times, but it's really hard for me to care anymore; as my real life has fallen into place, this distraction just doesn't matter much to me.

Ever think of trying to lift them up, rather than put them down? Sure, the kids have a lot to learn. They are just getting their feet wet in the adult world. Hopefully this place will help them progress.

[afleitch]

I don't like most people here and generally have grown to despise political discourse in general; I only stay for maps and to play devil's advocate as often as possible in order to try to inject something interesting into this teenager-white-upper-middle-class-male-socially-liberal-to-libertarian-atheist echo chamber by challenging assumptions and finding contradictions in beliefs.I pr obably take it too far some times, but it's really hard for me to care anymore; as my real life has fallen into place, this distraction just doesn't matter much to me.

So as a breath of fresh air you decide to be an upper middle class elitist, self interested, mildly phobic obnoxious whiner who can't get over his parent's divorce? I fail to see the difference from what you moan about.

That was petty of me. I apologise. I won't delete, because people shouldn't delete these things.

[RI]

I don't like most people here and generally have grown to despise political discourse in general; I only stay for maps and to play devil's advocate as often as possible in order to try to inject something interesting into this teenager-white-upper-middle-class-male-socially-liberal-to-libertarian-atheist echo chamber by challenging assumptions and finding contradictions in beliefs.I pr obably take it too far some times, but it's really hard for me to care anymore; as my real life has fallen into place, this distraction just doesn't matter much to me.

So as a breath of fresh air you decide to be an upper middle class elitist, self interested, mildly phobic obnoxious whiner who can't get over his parent's divorce? I fail to see the difference from what you moan about.

That was petty of me. I apologise. I won't delete, because people shouldn't delete these things.

Upper middle class elitist? I suppose that's somewhat accurate, though I find a lot of upper middle class people very pretentious and shallow. I am admittedly elitist, as I think all people are in their own way, but I don't think I'm biased toward the upper middle class. My elitist is something else.

Self-interested? I'm not sure what you mean by that.

Mildly phobic? Also not 100% sure what you mean, but I'll assume you are referring to homophobia as I'm not xenophobic or anything else I can think of. I have a rather strange person history with "gayness" that's a bit difficult to explain. All throughout my K-12 years, the vast majority of people I encountered believed that I was gay, as I never had a girlfriend until I was 17, I was and continue to have some social anxiety in real life, and I was generally intellectual and somewhat effeminate. This mostly manifested in school as a neverending torrent of teasing and bullying based on this "gayness", though, interestingly enough, I later had one of these bullies admit that if they actual thought I was gay that they never would have actually done the things they did. The accusations tormented me mostly because they were factually inaccurate but I had no way of disproving them. For a time, in middle school, I internalized this as an acute hatred for gay people, even once advocating their genocide in sixth grade to a person I later discovered was gay; that realization shamed me enough to never believe such a terrible thing again. In time, as I met more gay people, I disassociated myself from this connection and have never had a problem with a gay person since. Nevertheless, I was conditioned to believe by my supposedly "liberal" peers that there was something inherently wrong with "gayness", though I divorced this from gay people themselves cognitively. In some ways I still do think that the state of being a homosexual is, perhaps not wrong, but certainly not a desirable thing if you had the choice; attitudes vary I suppose, but I personally want my own children, a traditional wedding (which I'll be getting soon enough), a somewhat traditional family, etc., and I honestly don't care for men generally, by which I mean both that the masculine archetype disturbs and perplexes me and that I don't really have friends of my own gender...I just like women more in almost every way. I wonder sometimes if I "should" be one, but this thought is so apart from reality that I don't bother with it more than fleetingly. Also, I'm inherently more of an emotional person than a rational one, so I'm more apt to take cues from what I feel deep down than what I cognitively deem to be true.

Obnoxious whiner? That's rather subjective so I can't speak to that.

Can't get over my parents' divorce? I certainly wouldn't word it that way, but I think we all have events in our lives that transform how we see the world in all manners of ways, including politically. My parents' divorce profoundly shaped how I view marriage as a concept, and it demonstrated to me first hand how destructive dysfunctional relationships can be to others. I don't fixate on it, but it's part of who I am.

I don't claim to be a breath of fresh air. I feel like a cancer sometimes, but I justify it by saying that I'm standing against a worse one.

[Torie]

Interesting post. I wonder what alfeitch read of yours from which he inferred had phobic aspects to it.

I am sure most parents hope their kids aren't gay, and to me that is wholly understandable. But hopefully too, they realize that as human beings, their kids will not be exactly what they hope for, and surely it is better that they be gay, then hostile, lazy, dishonest, exploitative, unsympathetic and un-empathetic, stupid, etc - and most importantly perhaps, assuming reasonably decent - unhappy with themselves and their lives. Surely those qualities are more important no?

In the end, just who turns you on, and whom you love, be it gay, black, brown, whatever religion or lack thereof, even what you do to make a living, seems just so trivial as compared to which really matters, no? And if your kids are happy and decent, shouldn't you be also, about them? At least that is my conclusion about it all - and it took many decades for me to really get there, emotionally as well as intellectually (the latter never really having been any problem). It was rather heavy lifting in fact.

[RI]

Interesting post. I wonder what alfeitch read of yours from which he inferred had phobic aspects to it.

I am sure most parents hope their kids aren't gay, and to me that is wholly understandable. But hopefully too, they realize that as human beings, their kids will not be exactly what they hope for, and surely it is better that they be gay, then hostile, lazy, dishonest, exploitative, unsympathetic and un-empathetic, stupid, etc - and most importantly perhaps, assuming reasonably decent - unhappy with themselves and their lives. Surely those qualities are more important no?

In the end, just who turns you on, and whom you love, be it gay, black, brown, whatever religion or lack thereof, even what you do to make a living, seems just so trivial as compared to which really matters, no? And if your kids are happy and decent, shouldn't you be also, about them? At least that is my conclusion about it all - and it took many decades for me to really get there, emotionally as well as intellectually (the latter never really having been any problem). It was rather heavy lifting in fact.

Yes, I largely agree with what you said. I suppose I view being gay as on a similar level to being short; it probably isn't ideal, but it only determines who you are if you let it, unlike those personality traits you mentioned. I hope my children won't be gay (or short or fat or whatever), but I'd love and (most likely depending on their personality) like them if they were either. If they were dishonest, hostile, etc. I'd love them as a parent, but it would be hard to like them.

[Kitteh]

These are some very interesting posts, and really what I had hoped this thread would turn into, instead of "how to get a girlfriend" or yet another Atlas Forum treasure trove of bad dating advice and misogyny. Thank you for sharing realisticidealist (and Torie).

I've always felt somewhat differently about the "nobody would choose to be gay" argument than most people, given that I feel like I did have a lot of choice w/r/t my sexual orientation and gender identity (a little bit more about the former than the latter, but still with both). I'm not saying it was completely a choice, but I do feel that without some conscious choice on my part I would have been a cisgender male and relatively happy about it (I mean, I'm pretty depressed overall right now, but that specifically wouldn't have been causing much discomfort). I also am not saying it is this way for everyone; I'm definitely a tiny minority here. I'm not entirely sure why I chose instead to be a pansexual transgender woman. Some of it is that I am pretty "feminine" in personality, but not in the sense that living as a feminine man would have been impossible or difficult. Tbqh, part of it was that being yet another cis-het man is sort of...boring (that sounds extremely pretentious and self-absorbed, I know). I'm sure a lot of it does have to do with growing up in the 21st century with liberal parents in a relatively tolerant area. Not that my family or everyone has been entirely accepting, but I'm sure if I was born at the time Torie was I it wouldn't have been a choice I would have ever made. Truth be told, when I read this:

I honestly don't care for men generally, by which I mean both that the masculine archetype disturbs and perplexes me and that I don't really have friends of my own gender...I just like women more in almost every way. I wonder sometimes if I "should" be one, but this thought is so apart from reality that I don't bother with it more than fleetingly.

...it made me wonder how similar I would be to RI if I had come from a similar background, because that really resonated with me and fits myself as well, though to a greater degree than RI was describing. Idk, I'm not 100% sure about what my own gender/sexuality actually is or how much of it was innate or chosen, but I've come to the conclusion that this is the kind of thing that isn't really rational, and "this feels right" is all the justification I or anyone needs. 

On a political level, I don't really like the "born this way" argument that so many pro-LGBT groups use, even if it is true for the vast majority of people. I'd much rather rally behind the banner of "acceptance and equal rights for all, regardless of gender or sexuality and whether or not it was a choice" than "this is just the way we are, there's no changing it, so get used to it". I see the utility of the latter for convincing people, but I feel uncomfortable when some LGBT people and allies insist that that's the way it is for everyone, period.

This whole thing sounded more composed in my head, but it came out sort of rambling. Sorry. I guess that's what the confession thread is for, right?

[ZuWo]

Teenage neighbors that I know by sight are starting to address and greet me in a formal way, and it makes me feel old.

[politicus]

Teenage neighbors that I know by sight are starting to address and greet me in a formal way, and it makes me feel old.

Must be nice to life in a country where thats even possible.

[Antonio the Sixth]

I see what Realisticidealist is talking about and I admit I'm sometimes annoyed by certain aspect of the forum's consensus here as well. But the way you talk about most people here is deeply unfair and, honestly, pretty arrogant and self-righteous. Most posters here are, in my experience, nice, smart and overall great people who show deep interest in political debate and are generally willing to accept opposing opinions. You can disagree with people without collectively trashing them.

[Torie]

drj101, thanks for sharing too. Interesting journey that you have had so far, and I admire how "penetratingly" you have thought about this (even though given your situation, one would tend to do that if thoughtful and introspective).  

I certainly agree that as far as rights and treatment go, whether you are born gay, or just do it just because, is wholly irrelevant. I just bring up the born that way issue (I certainly was born that way without per adventure looking back), because given that, the mistreatment, and discrimination, and often just downright cruelty to gays, should be shockingly offensive to anyone's conscience - who has much of one. Maybe that is being too judgmental, but that is how I feel - and those feelings go deep down inside me, in fact. It't just outrageous, and cannot and must not stand for a moment longer than "necessary" to help folks get beyond and separate themselves from this irrational and cruel prejudice.

[SUSAN CRUSHBONE]

Upper middle class elitist? I suppose that's somewhat accurate, though I find a lot of upper middle class people very pretentious and shallow. I am admittedly elitist, as I think all people are in their own way, but I don't think I'm biased toward the upper middle class. My elitist is something else.

Wow, you're even an elitism elitist.

[tik 🪀✨]

So, around when I first started posting here there was a little bit of debate concerning my gender. This was sort of on purpose, as a joke, but I do like it that way. I am fully behind everyone in this thread who isn't completely enamored with following the gender identity society thrusts upon them and, for personal reasons, would never in my heart want to belittle that idea. It goes very deep into the subconscious and informs who we inexplicably ARE. That is to say, if you do not meet your assigned gender roles and do not meet the opposite gender roles, we are brethren. Don't sweat it; we are pretty interesting people, and good people will love us for who we are.

That said, when there was debate concerning my gender and certain posters were assuming that I was female in anatomy, I received a handful of private messages from some of YOU who wanted to hook up with me. I will not name names, but one of the more brazen posters actually requested that I meet him in a hotel room and he promised me alcohol.

And it was then that I gained much more respect for the day to day hassles of being a woman, and realised that I would never really be able to sympathise fully with it.