Emails from the Token

[kevin]

...oh....okay

...was Mr. rose there?

Mikado

More likely the prickles Mikado,
http://www.ehow.com/how_8286709_remove- ... ckles.html
Kevin

[Mikado14]

P.S.

Whom ever passes stuff from this site to the Blues may want to send my last post to her before she does something that makes her look extremely foolish!

I emailed her your posts and told her to call you. Her response was that it wouldn't work. I then emailed her and asked if she was talking about her phone. Her reply this time essentially said that she would bet that you told me to take a long walk off a short pier. She also said that you would have to contact "us". Who is "us"?

Give a call, seriously.

And now to get ahold of Plad.

Mikado

PS: Have not had a good couple of days and like the experiments with the rat in a cage....this is my teddy bear to tear apart. Sorry but it is what it is.

[TheTraveler]

Well,

Unless she deleted both my phone number and e-mail address in a fit of anger, she can contact me whenever she wants. As far as me contacting her, I have no desire to talk to her unless she decides to return to the person I first met those many years ago! I have already stated my intentions if the "Blues" continues along these lines. You have forwarded her my posts (which is ok with me), and if she thinks I am bluffing, or it is you posting for me, then so be it.

There are so many ways for me to prove who this is, from e-mail chains, to personal observations in meetings, to pictures that in the end, she will find out the hard way.

[StarCat]

Mikado, what is your obsession with pantyhose? It's a bit misogynistic to assume that the female members of the forum wear such things. I did, last year, for my cousin's wedding, but the days of nurses in white dresses and white stockings are gone. Don't be too sad. I'm sure Kim can find something for you online if you really feel the need to dress up for her. Klinger used to do it, why not you?

Cat

[Mikado14]

Mikado, what is your obsession with pantyhose? It's a bit misogynistic to assume that the female members of the forum wear such things. I did, last year, for my cousin's wedding, but the days of nurses in white dresses and white stockings are gone. Don't be too sad. I'm sure Kim can find something for you online if you really feel the need to dress up for her. Klinger used to do it, why not you?

Cat

I think you used the wrong word when you used misogynistic. Perhaps you may want to rethink what you wrote.

[StarCat]

It sounded better in my head. I shouldn't post when ai 'm as slepp deprived as I was. And I will shut up jow, necause ai'm still sleep deprived.

Cat

[Mikado14]

It's okay Cat.

Mikado

[Fruitbat]

This seems as good a place as any to address this:

"Can you explain why fruitbat was so abusive to me...remember pedantic bastard?"

Hard as It may be for anyone who doesn't know me to accept, but I was using that poor choice of words to convey a grudging respect at the time, and definitely not as a term of abuse.

To be completely honest, I used to think you were a bit too good at the keyboard warrior skills, particularly the technical/psychlogical aspects of "winding someone up", and I initially was quite able to see you as someone who is unnecesarily harsh and who I would want to avoid. As I learn more however, I am getting a real sense that you've been pushed into a corner, a few years back and that what initially seemed to be an innate "bad attitude" may have been similar to when I was at my most most evil as a young man, a reaction to external pressures.

Over the last year I certainly have seen you making some efforts to build bridges, and generally trying to conduct yourself in a visibly "nicer" manner. I'll caution you that it's taken me decades of trying not to be "evil" towards my fellow men to reap any sort of visible reward. And still most of the time, most people see my ways as being weak and they take as much advantage as I let them. Trying to be "good" is like being a real artist. You do it for the sake of the task itself not for the reward. If you are lucky it pays off, most times just like being an artist it doesn't...

I would really love to be able to help you and Linda bury the hatchet and move forwards, but of course, as I have proven with our kevin, I'm not much better at resolving conflicts. OF COURSE, it's all HIS fault, (from my perspective) but that doesn't matter, as we all know, it takes two to tango, and apparently two to act like total arses.

I think that linda's idea of an external manipulatiive force, is just an extension of the basic idea of a devil who tempts us to do hasty and ill considered things. Where this could be useful to all of us, is that it gives us a tool that helps us to step outside of ourselves, psychologically speaking and examine our actions more dispassionately. (And that is of big utility as I am sure you'll agree) I am often heard speaking of my personal "demon" who every so often gets the job of making bloody sure that nothing I do will work. I found that I was having too many days when I was getting angry and frustrated because everything "seems to be against me". Conventional thinking is of little utility on such days when you just seem to catch all the crap through no fault of your own, and seemingly the harder you try to prevail the more thwarted you get.

Now as we all know there is huge energy available in "anger" (I have a mate who is still trying to work out how I managed to single handedly reposition his metal working lathe last month, the truth is it pissed me off being where it was so I shoved it out of the effing way!) but, that energy comes at a price, and as one of my friends found out a few years back, that price can be your spouse... It's good therefore to have some other tools in addition to rage to use to deal with life's vicissitudes, and I've found that externalising the problem is a useful tool.

By applying the blame for my crappy day to my personal (and of course, quite imaginary) demon (he stands behind a large panel full of levers, and says stuff like, "oh no you don't!" or "you can't have that.." as he pulls on the levers that thwart whatever it is I am trying to do). I assume that he does it for the demonic pleasure of it and also to "try and wind me up", but (and here's the clever bit) by acting as if he was real, and (obviously) modifying my activities to minimise the extent of his victories I find nowadays I can often turn a really shitty day into quite a good one. And if he is truly on form and seemingly unbeatable, then fair enough I give myself an easy day, that day. Of course, as we all know, demons are limited in their powers, and vastly outnumbered by us, so soon enough the little bastard will go and mess with someone else, and I can then get on with whatever I was trying to get done.

I'd imagine if we externalise the overwhelming urge that we seem to get to hand out some whup-ass to the other idiots, and attribute it to a malevolent external force as Linda suggests, we might possibly be able to find some utility in that way of thinking. As I have found in the example above.

Do you mind if I suggest that it seems truly mad that those of us on these forums who often have quite clearer vision than the "mainstream thinking" people spend so much time at each others throats? Is it any wonder that quite a lot of people across several forums have all made similar suggestions to Linda, that there is an external force that uses our psychologies against us to fragment our efforts. It is my belief that just as I have found with my "demon", we could use the idea to perhaps help us to evolve past the perpetual infighting that seems to dog our efforts to get ahead?

Fruitbat.

(Just let me don this fire proof suit before I hit submit...)

[wags]

FB Wrote:-

....

"I'd imagine if we externalise the overwhelming urge that we seem to get to hand out some whup-ass to the other idiots, and attribute it to a malevolent external force as Linda suggests, we might possibly be able to find some utility in that way of thinking. As I have found in the example above."

...

What about personal responsibility and freewill? To excuse bad behaviour on some external force is avoiding taking responsibility for actions. Whilst good and evil may exist it is freewill that decides which way you go. The choice is your responsibility not some 'excuse' of an unseen malevolent external force made me do it! Very handy but ultimately dangerously wrong.

Sorry FB we are sadly I at different compass bearings over this.

[wags]

I think this is relevant here. It is a book recommendation by a friend (Adrian Melia) that arrived this morning.

I recently had the privilege of reading Viktor E Frankl’s book “Man’s Search for a Meaning”. Mr Frankl survived internment in concentration camps. The book chronicles his experiences and observations of fellow inmates and guards. Some passages really struck me as being helpful to people who are bullied, whether at work or elsewhere. This passage was one of many that struck me:-


“The way in which a man accepts his fate and all the suffering it entails, the way in which he takes up his cross, gives him ample opportunity – even under the most difficult circumstances – to add a deeper meaning to his life. It may remain brave, dignified and unselfish. Or in the bitter fight for self-preservation he may forget his human dignity and become no more than an animal. Here lies the chance for a man either to make use of or to forego the opportunities of attaining the moral values that a difficult situation may afford him.”


I have always maintained that it is essential for a target to strive to keep the moral high ground when being bullied, or where a complaint of bullying has led to a dispute. This book has shown me a most extreme example as to why it is the right thing to do, and how responding to bullying with bullying is the ultimate failure.