Locke's Off-Topic Thread of Random Things

[Locke]

[Bear Bipolar-Bear]

This really gives bears a bad name. Ever since that frightful harridan Palin declared herself a "mama grizzly", I have been loathe to so much as leave the den, for fear of being associated with these dangerous demagogues.

The ursine race is ancient and noble and, yea, apolitical. To be commandeered in such a fashion feels like nothing short of a physical assault.

Such being said, I do appreciate the humor and grisly warning of this propitious and prescient illustration.

[End Master]

The ursine race is ancient and noble and, yea, apolitical. To be commandeered in such a fashion feels like nothing short of a physical assault.

What about your race's involvement in the Soviet Union? You were a mascot for Russia which was the major super power behind the communist threat during the Cold War. This means you either agreed with the ideology and supported goals for world domination at worst or were easily swayed tools for it at best.

Even today your kind is still connected to Russia which may have abandoned its failed economic system, but not all of its totalitarian methods in which to enforce order on its citizens.

[Bear Bipolar-Bear]

Oh heavens! Don't you see, Mr. Master, that Russia is yet one more example of the proud ursine name being burgled by ne'er-do-wells who would use our impressive visages for their own nefarious ends?

As you have yourself conceded, the bear stood as the symbol for Russia long before the Soviets started putting my kind on unicycles! I believe such symbolism has its roots in the ancient shamanic practices of Central Asia, where the bear stood as a powerful totem for a people buffeted by the unforgiving realities of life on the steppes.

However, it is perhaps worth mentioning that I belong to a purely American race of bear. No oligarch can claim me as his own.

I've got the papers to prove it.

I was born in Florida, for heavens sake! They used to call me Dixie Cub at school. I'm about as Russian as a Chinese finger trap.

My kind are not tools and I would bid you kindly not to think of us as such. We may not have the wherewithal to resist each time a Communist or a Fascist or Stephen Bloody Colbert decides to besmirch our good name; but I believe this truth to be self-evident, that our ongoing regal manner and indifference to the ways of you humans (except perhaps where your unprotected campsites are concerned) are more than sufficient proof of our purity and incontrovertible perfection.

[BatCountry]

This is the true majesty of the urusine kind! These bears have transcended above their slandered and misunderstood brethren, to become GODS! Do not fret Mr. Bear, one day you to shall fly with the god bears, for I know as far as bears go, your heart is pure and noble! EXCELSIOR!

[Locke]

Okay, that's just awesome.

[Threadkiller]

fuck russia. alifso all the rest of u. u dont knojtr shit. Ive got a fuckjing list & ur on it

[Locke]

So, I climb mountains and stuff. Here's a really tiny subset of my last trip. They've been filtered through my substandard camera, lousy image hosting, resizing, and this forum. It's nothing at all like being there.

[Locke]

[Vesnic]

Very lovely.

Having seen quite a bit of green stuff in my own life, I can easily extrapolate from these pictures my own idea of what being there must have been like.

That poor guy just looks confused, though. Like you just disturbed him and the missus going at a bit of furry business...

Where were these taken, Herr Lockenstein?

[Locke]

Where were these taken, Herr Lockenstein?

Colorado. The Devil's Causeway, which is just amazing and a good day hike, and Pipit Lake above Wild Basin. Which is grueling to do in a day even if you're in shape, but worth it.

The larger lake is Grand Lake, which can be driven to. It was a nest of three marmots, btw. Not fearful at all. They just woke up and came out to see what was going on.

The town is Steamboat Springs, where I stayed.

Here's a video of some deer on the way to the Wild Basin hike.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hoWuB...ature=youtu.be

[ChubbyTeletubby]

Having lived many, many, many years in colorado I love climbing too. Ill post some pics. They're all on my other comp. Some are low quality. But still worth posting. All around pikes peak of course.

[ChubbyTeletubby]

Oh, and did I mention! Fuck you, locke. Polite as you may masquerade, you a rude, sniveling coward. When we met in the summerof 2009 I was at a peak. We coulda tripped on shrooms and hiked the scenic front range.

Why? I made some jokes your friend was too stupid to take?

You seemed aloof and wary yourself.

Rot in hell.

[ChubbyTeletubby]

We coulda had fun, in otherwords. Most of our hike woulda been done sober. When I took you to the cliffs only I and a few natives know of you woulda been amazed. We coulda talked.

You were a coward. As I imagine anyone else I would ever meet would be.

Cowards. Idiots and cowards. Was I intimidating??? I'm tall, not that muscle bound tho.

Was I rude???

I made a few jokes. Completely relevant. Your little friend is lucky I didn't put a knife into his "heart"

Thanks, though. For affirming my unbridled hatred of everyone. Unbridled. Kentuckys new catchphrase. What a wasteland.

[Locke]

Wanted to try shrooms that summer. Went trespassing with that same friend several times, looking, and somehow didn't find anything. Given more recent experiences, I'm not sure how that would've gone over. I've done some strange and arguably dangerous drugs, but I've never met a psychedelic I fully got along with. Dissociatives suited me perfectly (aside from being incompatible, like all drugs, with what I'm doing in life right now). A comparatively cold and clean experience. Lucid, euphoric, cathartic (at least, those are the positives).

As I mentioned in this thread - about three years ago - I was kind of stuck with my friend.

Who was, with all his faults, a very good friend. I somewhat selfishly cut him out of my life this year, and he has no idea why. For a few months after I left Virginia, having lost, in the process, my only other friends and the nascent life I was building

(and that still kills me. There was so much promise there, and someone I knew decided to end twelve years of friendship over nothing, in such an arbitrary, destructive way that it brought everything else down with it),

I wasn't someone worth knowing. After that, it seemed better to leave it alone than risk getting back into that cycle of slacking off and goofing around and going nowhere in life, which was mainly what we did together. Made it easier that - like most of my (former) friends - he got into a steady relationship with someone I don't fully get along with, and they are never apart.

Anyway, by all means, let's go ahead and pointlessly rehash this. If nothing else because I find it ironic that you began the last thread - itself devoted to ranting about our visit - by saying "no hard feelings." Yes, I was a little "aloof and wary." I was still kind of a kid, you were much older and more grizzled than I'd pictured (the beard, maybe), and the whole thing felt a little sketchy.

You know, having been stuck up on a glacier in an ice storm the entirety of the previous night didn't help. My friend brought what he thought was a sleeping bag, but was in fact a spare tent that belonged to my uncle. He had no protection other than our flimsy tent and whatever clothes he was wearing. That was enough to stave off hypothermia, but if his mood was less than perfect, that was part of it (and only part of it; he was, and is, a crude guy with that same sense of humor you noted. I don't think he still uses racism to break the ice, though. He always claimed he wasn't a racist at heart).

Anyway, I would've tried to put that initial awkwardness behind us. Knowing him, and seeing where things were headed, I thought it was better to just break it off than subject all of us to a night of misery and disaster while the two of you hated each other to death. Given your memories of my friend, do you really think that would've gone anywhere? I left with as much grace as possible under the circumstances.

I am always "aloof and wary" at first. That's my life's experience talking. It's part of who I am, and short of (temporarily) altering my personality with drug use, I can't help it. I'm a completely different person once I've had a chance to get to know someone - but that takes time. It's why I've never had many friends. Nobody wants to invest that time on an unknown. And without existing friends to take up the slack in conversation at the beginning, there are always those silences, which drive people away.

Polite as you may masquerade, you a rude, sniveling coward.

Way to judge someone based on twenty minutes of nothing. I have been a coward. I imagine that's true of everyone at some point, but I'm not offering that as an excuse. I have let fear of change and the unknown, and the possibility of failure lead to a cycle of indigence and dead-end jobs, and the complete waste of all the hours, days, and months of inactivity that left me. At one point, my leisure activity - which was all I had - was itself restricted to sitting in front of a computer all day, refreshing the same three or four websites, waiting for new content. I had no obligations, and I wasn't even enjoying myself; it was just misery.

That's part of why I find it so hard to write. I have had others judge my work harshly, and I'm a worse self-critic than any of them. As soon as I start putting words on the page, until I amass enough of them that it "flows," it's hard to keep my thoughts focused on it for the perfectionism. My mind keeps offering habitual distractions that have long since exhausted any possibility of enjoyment. I went so long without seeing or talking to another person that going out to buy groceries was painful. It felt like everyone was looking at me.

I have used drugs as a crutch and a solution to the intense boredom and despair and worthlessness that comprised my life. Yes, there were transient benefits (and a few intangible lasting ones), but they were greatly outweighed by the downsides. I don't need to rehash that for you. Suffice it to say that I considered it cowardice. When I ran out of whatever it was - even when I was a much better person and had accomplished things on a given substance - my old mindset was waiting for me. No matter what. I couldn't drug it away.

I remained functional and worked throughout, but more dead-end stuff. Progressing beyond that is requiring study, effort, concentration, intense output of energy. I didn't do it when I was on my parents' dime, so now that's in addition to work. Devoting my spare time to drug use - even when that was occasionally beneficial - kept me in the same place, because I had no time or energy left for progress.

I have done some brave things in my life, though. By no means is this all of it - the best and bravest moments usually aren't photogenic, and sometimes don't even lend themselves to text very well - but here are a few of my better moments.




The top of Mt. Elbert, highest in the Rockies.



The first time I flew a plane. That's what I'm doing with my life right now.



The same flight, coming in on the runway.



My apartment in Virginia. The other guy was my best friend, someone I thought of as a brother. That's an arcade machine we were building in the background. Amazing times in general while I was there. What you're seeing in that photo is probably the happiest and most content with life I've been. I mean, it was really getting good; I had a group of friends, a job, flight school - a life. Then it blew up in my face. Picked up the last two again over the past several months, but I don't think I will ever get over what I lost there. I actually had something I loved for awhile.

I can't call myself a coward. It just isn't who I am. Did I mention that I fly aircraft? I'm not saying that's bravery, but it takes courage.

I am arrogant and self-indulgent and awkward with people I don't know.

I'm also honest to a fault, and one of the kindest, most understanding and basically decent people you will ever meet. For instance, I've managed to go this entire post without telling you to fuck off.