9UPDATE; NEW DIARY OPENED UP, WELCOME WAGON, POST THERE, THANKS….)
I was just checking the previous ‘tell us’ diary and it is so big and hard to load now that I decided to put up a new diary.
So continue your talking and welcoming here.
We are so happy to have all you new members and you have really made this ‘joint jump’ in the last two days.
I am having a hard time just keeping up with all the comments, and by the way, if you haven’t already, check out the recent comment tab above.
At this point I think it would behoove us older members to write something about us as the newer members will not likely trudge through all the old diaries to find out something. Therefore, even if you have written about yourself before, introduce yourself again.
Booman and Susanhu also, many know you from your work, but they don’t know your personal stories so please introduce yourselves to our newer members. Then they will ‘love’ you both just like us oldsters do.
Have some more fun here on this diary and if you are brave enough post a pic of yourself of your family, pets, gardens, whatever.
Have fun and have a great day!!
This Diary is hosted by Shirlstars and Diane101.
Lets do a new gender count too, with poll.
http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2005/6/6/162047/9358
Old diary got too long, please use this nice new diary to introduce yourself.
Wow it has been a while since I partied all night long, but what a party!!! That Diane, she is such a hostess and party giver. She does this about once a week or whenever the mood strikes her, so get ready to party folks.
Oh, I think most of you know my story. . .goodness knows I’ve told almost everything there is to know about me in my diary series here and my ceaseless comments everywhere else. So telling you I am an opinionated elder stateswoman might be redundant.
I live in small town Idaho, and about to make a move probably to Belize (formerly British Hondurous). I am finsishing up my Piled higher and Deeper degree in Metaphysics, I am in process of writing two books and creating a seminar series. I live alone with my beautiful dog, Sundancer and two once stray cats, Mandy, a calico who has been with me for 7 years and Banger an orange tiger stripe who has been here for about a year and a half.
At one time, BB (before blogging) I was considered a bit off by my friends. . .but since blogging they say I have totally gone over the edge. . .deep end of the pool and no life guard. That’s okay. . .I’m a life guard so I don’t need one do I? (. . .where’s my rubber ducky? . . .)
I am “full of it” and impish a good deal of the time, so you will have to be the judge of how seriously to take anything I say.
Glad to see all the Newbies and the oldies and everyone in between!
She who rules my household
Mom Diane and Shirlstars you are the energy and your welcome attitude to the new members is the light. There is no place like this among the places I have heard of. God bless you
Thank you Lincoln, and you bring some light and energy to this site as well. I hope you are feeling at home here now and soon you will need to do your own diary.
I think you could write a great diary. If you need help, just ask.
Are you having any problems navigating this site, if you do just ask and someone will no doubt pop in and help you.
Have a great day Lincoln…..
glad to see you back here pastorlincoln. Thank you for your kind words. We are so happy you decided to join us and lend your Light and Energy to this place.
Come back often and tell us more about your country and you and the concerns you have in your daily life.
Thanks for being a part of our little family here.
Shirl
Hi, Another Menstruating She Devil givng DailyKos the boot. I’m 43, have not been engaged in a specifically feminist worldview since I was in my early 20s, but the pie thing sure brought it front and center again the other night! I’m really glad to find an alternative site.
I live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Single, living in sin with my BF, no kids. Sometimes I wish I had some, but more often I’m content with my childless status — esp. now when it must be so nerve-wracking to be a mom. What will the future bring for our kids?
I’m sometimes scared of the incipinent fascism I see all around. The thing that keeps me going is a spiritual belief based on the idea that we are all part of this great play, which will all be put right in the end. Right now we seem to be entering a climactic period.
Will we end up in a grey prison landscape under totalitarianism, or will we find ourselves in some futuristic utopia where we have learned to balance technogy and nature for a truly peaceful, healthy world?
It all seem to exist in the balance right now, could tip one way or the other.
I admit to being prone to conspiracy theories, though I promise not to go on about that stuff if it gets on people’s nerves!
I’m intrigued by Terence McKenna’s 2012 ideas and can’t help but see these times we live in as perhaps the run up to this great event that he calls the “end of history.”
I continue to fear the worst, but also to hope for the best.
Nice to meet you all.
Tauri. . .welcome! You will find that there are several of us here that relate to your spiritual views and certainly many of us who have some of the same concerns and thoughts about our world as you do. You will fit in just fine here and we will be very glad to hear from you.
Thanks Shirlstars. One of the reasons I decided to sign up here was your tag line. It’s beautiful and really helps put it all in perspective. I like seeing it scoll by now and then as I read down the diaries.
You mean that the world is not influenced by conspiracy theories and they are really not out to get me. Well damn, I guess I will just have to stop listening to the voices in my head, seems they have been wrong all this time. Welcome and glad you are here, not many conspiracy theorists around here for me to talk to about the many and varied conspiracies evolving all over the place, just look around. lol
Well just two days ago I learned some new acronyms to describe two popular conspiracy theories regarding 911:
LIHOP = Let it happen of purpose
MIHOP = Made it happen on purpose
Gee, these acronyms were news to me but everyone else seemed to be in the know. Must have been a conspiracy 😉
Glad to meet you, Ghostdancer.
Have you visited the Rigorous Intuition site? Some really interesting – and often disturbing – writing over there.
Oh please don’t encourage me, my wife will not let come out to Booman’s and play if I start getting all wrapped up in Conspiracy theories again. lmao
(you might want to sneak over to rigorous intuition – i won’t tell if you won’t. . .)
and I’ll whisper it in your other ear.
I am going to get my butt in a sling if I start reading conspiracy theorist again. lmao
Ya know – at first it didn’t sink in (cuz I figured it wouldn’t hurt not to listen. . .just this once ;^)
Then my brother-in-law came to mind. And how we drive everyone nuts at family get-togethers – with children leaving the room muttering about Auntie Anomalous and Uncle Bradman talking about politics and religion again. . .heavy dramatic sighs all around. And there we sit, mocking and dismissing each other’s sources and trying to out do each other with knowledge of the latest whisperings on the Net.
Thankfully our ever-so-patient immediate families listen and nod and read what we share, with the occasional “No way!” But if you’ve been down that road, and it’s a path best not taken, I certainly respect that!
McKenna was great, wasn’t he? I love and have worked with the I Ching for many years so his “novelty” theory leading up to 2012 was a natural for me. So glad to find another McKenna fan!
Timewave Zero!
Grant Morrison wrote a comic book about the world ending in 2012 that the Matrix was based on… It’s one of my favorite pieces of art from the last 10 years. We seem to be kindred spirits. I even have a folder in my research files called the “End of Time.”
And as Kurt Cobain sang, “Just because you’re paranoid, don’t mean they’re not after you.” (I’ll try to keep these things in check as well, lest I lead the tin foil brigade)
I’ll ask my BF about Gary Morrison. He is a huge comic book reader, so he might even have it around. One room of our house is almost filled up with comic books!
A folder, Wow. Bet there is some good stuff in there. I’ve not been so organized, but every day it seems like little stories and signs appear indicating … what? Something! But maybe people in every generation have felt like that.
I like to pay attention to so-called “crazy” people because even if the most outrageous manifestation of their particular delusion seems too out there, often you find some grain of truth or underlying principle in it.
Just ask him about “The Invisibles”. If you know McKenna and the BF reads comics, I guarantee he’ll know it as Morrison references McKenna fairly often in the series.
my menstruating friends are she-devils, hellions, Xanthippes, or viragos of one stripe or another. Wouldn’t have it any other way.
Hi. Before yesterday, I never posted on blogs. I am usually as reserved on the internet as I am in person, contrary to the way most people are, I guess.
I’m a refugee from the pie wars. I was Nixie Knox, two year lurker/donor, who dropped one large, flaming, hit-and-run, goodbye-cruel-world post there yesterday, and logged out. Very bad form! 🙂
I’m 36 next month, single gal, art director/web designer for a major men’s entertainment brand. (there’s irony for ya) Progressive, christian, registered Democrat. Transplanted Kentuckian living in Chicago, about to be transferred to LA. I have a degree in Slavic Languages and Literature. My pet interests are the economy, energy/fuel issues and international topics, as well as things that affect my hide like the right to control my own body, etc.
I’m terribly excited to find this blog, since I don’t really care about dKos per se, but about many of the diarists that write for it. Very cool to see many of them here. Go crossposting! Woo!
Nice to meet you. I will happily read and click on the ads now.
Good for you and your GCW diary. That should keep the juveniles happily engaged for quite some time down the road.
We are really glad to welcome you here and will be glad to see your comments and a diary or two if you ever feel you want to. Make yourself at home and a part of this fabulous collection of talent and brains.
I’m a refugee from the pie wars. I was Nixie Knox, two year lurker/donor, who dropped one large, flaming, hit-and-run, goodbye-cruel-world post there yesterday, and logged out. Very bad form! 🙂
Oh, I wouldn’t say that. A good GCW post can have a lot of panache! Wish I had seen it, but I was probably busy making my own escape. (hee, hee)
Hi,
I too am a cross over from DKOS and sadly only officially registered a couple weeks ago (sniff) – although I had been a lurker for over a year. The pie wars scared the beejesus outta me and so I decided to find a more inclusive place to hang my hat. I am female. I work as a web designer for an adult company – talk about pie!. I’m also a musician, photographer and all around good egg. I look forward to hangin’ and chattin’ and meeting new peeps.
Welcome here ratzo! You came to the right place.
51 year old American Native/Welshman, married to a witch, yes folks she is a witch, practicing now for over 20 yrs. We have two children, an almost 3 yr old son and a 7 month old daughter. I have a daughter who is almost 12 who lives with her mother. I came upon Booman’s and found that many here hold many of the same beliefs that I do concerning our country and it rise into fascism. I also found many here are willing to listen about my concerns within the American Native world and what is important to them. What I know to be fact is that I have been treated with respect and dignity and I have strived to reciprocate that with the same respect and dignity. There are those here whom I disagree with, yet have respected them their right to hold whatever opinion or thought I disagree with at the time. I come here not just to have my own opinions or ideas validated, I come here to have them challenged also. As a wise man once told me, “if you only hang around sick people you will never get well”. That wise man was my sponsor in a 12 step program that I continue to attend to this day. If all I ever hear is affirmation of my own opinions or ideas, then I will never be afforded the opportunity to grow. That is why we have a war criminal for a president, all he ever hears are sychncophats who validate only his opinions and never allow a discouraging word to rattle around in his empty head. Welcome to all the newcomers and know that you have entered into a place that I believe provides magic within our lives. Magic is not the stuff you see on TV, magic is the stuff that makes lives worth living.
I know I am among the legions here on Booman trib, who treasure your words and your stories. I see you writing books in your future and I do hope so. Your words carry such spirit within them, I want them to reach more and more people.
Keep on writing as you do the Ghostdance and as we join with you. I hope I said that right.
Hugs to you!!
You are certainly one of my favorite guys and I enjoy your writing so much. I always look forward to your diaries and comments, so I guess you just have to say I am a big fan!
Anytime you want to write more about the native people’s ways, you know I am eager to read about it.
Hugs,
Shirl
Concise.
31, female, married, no kids, big firm litigator. Hubby is an educator and a scholar.
Democrat from birth – took my first steps the day Nixon resigned.
Proud, loud, pro-choice feminist until the day I die.
Parents from India, born in Albany, grew up in Westchester County and the Hudson Valley, 11 years in NYC, most recently in Brooklyn, all meaning of course that I have no discernible accent when I speak.
Two younger brothers, and I hope to G-d they get much older before the draft comes back.
Kos user # 14000. I have often thought of coming here, in part because I would dearly love SusanHu to be the next mayor of NYC (and she knows it), but I never quite made it here before the notorious pie fight. I haven’t quite left there yet, but I’m thinking about it.
Permanently intrigued by the fact that the lyrics to the Gilligan’s Island theme and Amazing Grace are interchangeable.
So this is me, and here I am.
Since many know me from DailyKos – I’ll drop in a short introduction of me to the Newbies. I’ve been hanging around here on fringes for awhile.
I’m a 49 yr old woman living north of SF and practicing Pagan. Married for 22 years to a wonderful man – who appreciates my whacky personality. I’m usually too serious and usually mess up punch lines to jokes. I have one adult stepchild and 2 absolutely adorable grandchildren.
Welcome all…this is a great place!
SallyCat, thanks for being a pagan representative here. There are a few of us weird folks participating. Really glad you are one of them. . .(no, I wasn’t really calling you weird. . .er. . .uh. . .removes foot from keyboard).
Love your comments and glad we can dangle our feet in the frog pond together.
Hey sallycat, shirlstar, it seems I am good company. Recently, I was asked this question by a fundamentalist Christian and I had to restrain myself from laughing in his face. I wear a coyote fetish, along with my medicine bag and when I bent over to pick up something this man saw them and asked me if I was a satan worshipper. I said no, I practice native american spiritualism, he replied, oh you are one of those pagans. I smiled and said, yes I guess you could say that. Now here is the most intriguing part of this conversation that occurred in the 21st century. He said, my pastor told us that pagans eat their own children, do you eat your own children. Oh Great Spirit please help me. I looked at him and said, no pagans do not eat their own children, they go out at night and steal christians children because they are juicier and have more meat on them. Struggling with all my might not to laugh out loud. His eyes got as big as saucers and then I had to laugh and tell him that neither one of those statements was true and that pagans do not eat children. What the freaking bloody hell are these fundies teaching people. I told my wife what transpired and she offered me her Pentacle to wear for protection. Needless to say, I no longer work there and am quite grateful that I don’t, way to many fundies in that organization.
I can’t even pcik myself up off the floor from rolling around laughing my effing ass off. That was hilarious. Sometimes I wonder if some of the folks on this planet are missing some brain cells. How could anyone seriously believe such crap?
Great answers to him though! I would have loved being the proverbial mouse in the corner during that exchange.
I thought I would die laughing after he left where I was working. I just can’t imagine anyone in this day and age believing that people are eating children as part of their “religious” spiritual practices.
Welcome and GREAT comment. . .I was wondering where the “neither one” or “I don’t know” categories were on the poll.
Hi all–
I’m not a day over 39, no matter what my driver’s license sez. My Governor is the Terminator. Ronald Reagan is still dead. My state is blue, as has been my mood since 2000.
I found this excellent Booman via Kos; I no nothing about pies except they taste good, and big boobs? Girls, please, we got the power!
The community inside my head is reality based.
I like to say and write the word “Fuck.” A fucking lot.
In closing, I would like to see Team Bush convicted of war crimes, sent to Gitmo forever, and their Bibles pissed on by whomever’s walking past the air vent.
But I’m not bitter.
Thanks for the welcoming mat 😉
Well, I don’t know what our fucking attitude is about that kind of fucking language being used on this fucking blog, but what the fuck. . .I guess we will find out!
Welcome Capitola, and we are glad to see your youthful vigor and absence of bitterness here. Enjoy yourself!
Fuck
I’ll put in my two cents here in this additional diary. It’s only that in college that I really began to get a deeper understanding of women’s issues, which is understandable since the college I went to was a women’s college. The class I took in women’s studies, that so-called “sanctimontious women’s studies set” that Kos likes to denigrate, taught me that we still have a long way to go in progress for women in this country. That class, called “Mothers in Law and Public Policy,” was a real eye-opener about the many issues facing single mothers in this country, namely child custody, access to birth control, and education for their children.
I myself am the daughter of a single mother who was a social worker, went to law school part-time at night, and managed to be there at almost all of our events. It’s still mind-boggling to me how she did it. I doubt that in today’s climate that she would have been unable to do what she did for my brothers and I. Mom, I love you so much for doing that, and I will always be in your debt. I hope to make you as proud of me as I am of you someday.
So many of us had such great and amazing mothers. . .we owe them a lot. It was nice to see your expression of love for yours.
Welcome, come on in the water’s fine. . .although I am not sure booman likes me swimming in the Frog Pond. . .
So glad to see you here!!! I know I owe you an email – I’m so sorry. My personal life has been a shambles the past couple of weeks and the day job isn’t much better. So I offer that by way of a lame excuse for not emailing.
Clearly, we need to discuss our current projects – for a number of reasons!
Hope all is well! More soon!
thanks for the reply! When I get back from my older brother’s graduation, thankfully the last, on Thursday, we should definitely exchange e-mails about the projects because I’m raring to go 🙂
I haven’t posted a bio in awhile so I will do so here. I am 62, live in Santa Ana, Ca., which is in Orange County, just south of LA county.
In my past I have been a mother, grandmother, wife, executive assistant, antique dealer, tole painter, nanny and most of all a seeker of knowledge.
I have no fancy degrees, just a torn and tattered diploma from the prestigious School of Hard Knocks from which I graduated with honors, I hope.
Not attending more than a few classes in a formal setting, I nevertheless educated myself in a myriad of subjects during my 62 years on this earth.
I prefer the informal education I received, but I do give all the credit in the world to those who have pursued a more formal education and the work and dedication it took to get you to the place you occupy presently.
I am in awe of the intelligence I find on this site. I found it daunting at first and then I realized that my voice was just as important as any other so I spoke and continue to speak. All your voices are important too, so don’t be afraid of posting if you are new. We are all students of life.
Cheers to all on this great site and I forsee great works coming from such a homogeneous and ernest group of folks.
I am currrently semi retired, just work part time for my ex and really my job seems to be blogging. Great that I get to spend so many hours a day with all you wonderful people. Sure beats many of my past jobs.
You know Mz Diane, you have the most valuable degree of all, the degree to which you are such a caring and big hearted person (not to mention pushy as hell).
I have known some very highly educated people (still do) who aren’t able to articulate anything thought provoking or seemingly intelligent. I also know street people who left school by 7th grade that are endlessly interesting and very, very bright. There are many ways to get an education, and it is very apparent to me that none is particularly better than any other. People who think, reason, care and have passion are the force behind all things that matter on this earth. JMHO
And one day soon, I want to take a poll of how many current or soon to be “that’s DR Bitch to you” women we have here. I am really quite amazed at the numbers of those posting here that seem to fall in that category.
Doesn’t make them any better or smarter than anyone else, just a curious stat that interests me.
Diane, please warn me before you start another one of these BIG projects, and I’ll lay in supplies.
Shirl
Turn on your instant messaging!!!!!
Sorry Shirl, for all the work I’ve had you do, but you really are quite good at this. But do stock up on essentials, because you never know when another diary of mine will strike!!! Keep cigarettes close and handy.
So shirl maybe you should do a diary on education, the level of, the degrees/non degrees and so on with a poll.
Thanks for the validation my dear Shirl.
I told ya she is a pushy broad! And I mean “broad” in the very nicest way. . .heh!
And you’ve reminded me of what my late husband always said when people asked him what his wife did (back during my 20+ years as a “domestic goddess”).
“She drinks coffee and reads books.” 🙂
God, I miss that man.
Ok, I’m dumb and I posted my intro comment on the last thread just after the redirect. Here’s another one, for good measure…
This is my first visit to Booman and I love it already! I have been a kossack since last summer, but am probably not too familiar to most of you. I have never posted a diary, and while I comment pretty often, I’m not as witty or prolific as some. I came in at the tail end of piegate (as we’re apparently calling it now) and stuck my head in the Booman door to try and figure out which of my favorite diarists had left. I’ve seen enough to make me want to stick around and get to know all of you better.
About me: I’m 26 you might say I’m a slow nomad. Since graduating college in ’01 I have lived in New Jersey, Boston, Florida (Venice!), Indiana (birthplace, home state and where the heart is) and California, and have done everything from nonprofit organizing to waitressing to event planning. In a few months I’m headed back to school in IN for a master’s in Library Science. My real name is Melanie and I would very much like to change my crappy username, but since I’ve had it for so long I’m reluctant.
I’m so happy to meet you all!
Whoa! I’ve got a twinge of carpal tunnel from handing out 4’s on this thread and the previous one. That’s a tradition here at BooTrib, by the way, where we want everyone to be a TU as fast as possible.
Diane and Shirl, you’re tireless and terrific offering welcoming comments to all our new members. Did you stay up all night? My admiration has no limits…
I’m wondering this afternoon if Booman isn’t a bit nervous about this recent influx of powerful women. But, like to like, where strong women hang out, others are sure to join. SusanHu is like a magnet in that regard.
This site also provides a home for some incredibly effective male voices like Jerome, Oui and Ghostdancer. And, of course, Booman himself — he who connects the dots most of us don’t even notice, much less the pattern they form.
One of the aspects of this site that I most enjoy is that we aren’t forced into content straight-jackets. Diane has a wonderful series of gardening diaries and Shirl even did a diary on the proper way to breathe. I’m also willing to bet you won’t find another diary on Birthing at any other liberal/progressive blog. I love politics — it’s my obsession — but it’s wondrous to be able to relax and enjoy other shared interests, too.
If you’re new and want to know more about me, just click on my info page and read some of my previous — extremely personal — diaries. Right now, I’m sitting in Lynchburg, VA, the home of Jerry Falwell, wondering just how long it’s going to take before I find another old hippie, pagan progressive like myself around here. (sigh)
In the meantime, I’m looking forward to reading the contributions of our new members.
Well, it sounds more impressive than it probably is. . .I am one of those who haunts the wee hours of the morning with some frequency. I am usually up until 1, 2, or 3 in the a.m. And it was such a great party!!! The only problem I have with being such a “woman of the night” is that that damn Diane won’t let me sleep in as she jumps out of bed in the early morning hours and hits the keyboard running. . . .geeze, I don’t even know my name for a couple of hours after I get up, let alone have the ability to string words together in some comprehensive fashion. She thinks it strange, but then she has one of those clearly working brains and I have to tease mine along all of the time. Someday I’ll tell everyone how she manages to wake me up out of a sound sleep without the use of a computer or telephone. . . (that will teach her. . .hehehehe. . .)
And, Oh my gosh! You actually read the Breathe Diary? Well now I am impressed as hell.
Just wait until I do my OBE diary. . .that should get things stirred up. . .
Thanks for your kind words and support, sjct. . .YEP, I think most everyone is going to like it here!
Just wait until I do my OBE diary
um, Order of the British Empire?
I was referring to Out of Body Experiences. . .but we could probably round something up on Order of the British Empire. . .Heh!
I hope you’re not kidding! I can’t wait to read that one. (A lot of us are having OKE’s. . .Out of Kos. hee.)
ROFLMFAO OKE’s. . .yes, there seems to be an epidemic of it at the moment! That was just the best! Thanks I needed that.
No I am not kidding about OBE’s, which I later thought in reference to the response from one that it could be Officers of The British Empire out of body experiences.
I promise I will post some of the most out of the ordinary, somewhat weird, and positively not mainstream diaries ever seen ’round these parts. OBE’s is as good a place as any to start.
I will nag at you until you do that!
Oh great. . .now I have Diane101 in one ear and Kansas in the other. Stereo push-ies. . .
Are you two secretly plotting or what? LOL
“Us?” she said, batting her eyelashes innocently. “Plotting? Wherever did you get that idea? Why you must be having an OBE.”
Nope, just great minds, etc. Write that diary!!
If we all start telling our OBE stories, the comments section could get as long as, oh, I dunno … a pie fight thread, or something. 😉
Et tu moiv?
doesn’t everybody? 🙂
middle aged single guy. Mutt, like most Americans: German, French & Lakota ancestry. Raised in the midwest, a New Yorker at heart (where I lived for most of the ’90s thru ’03), now stuck back in the heartland while I work toward a new career.
I could care less about anything after this world, since there are so many underappreciated wonders here in the really real world. I’m tired of the lost beauty and creativity mowed under by bigots, religious nuts and misogynists.
Been lurking here for a while (those Deadwood diaries lured me in, ya damned hoopleheads) and after the latest fratboy behavior at dkos (I have hung out there for a long time, learned a lot, and the whole mess makes me sad) am finding this more congenial.
I post at Liberal Street Fight and unbossed.
Every blog should be so lucky as to have a Madman like you as a participant. Very glad to see you here and I very much enjoy your writing and thougtfulness.
Welcome!
I plan on keeping up my “unruly” and “shrill” behavior.
I’m glad to see you here. Yesterday, while migrating, I was concerned about missing you in the future – looks like I have nothing to worry about. Phew…
thanks
I’ll probably start crossposting here more, and I’m always at Liberal Street Fight and unbossed.
Howdy!
looking for a sandbox where people build stuff.
welcome to the building league. Sandcastles, stone foundatins, etheric structures, powerful presence. . .we build what we want and we do it well here. We are glad to welcome your expert assistance.
I was a typical girly-girl until I got pregnant as a teenager in high school in 1966. I quickly turned in my white go-go boots and picked up “Our Bodies, Ourselves” and have never looked back. It was invogorating to call myself a proud feminist then and it is still a privilege to call myself one today.
I was raised in upper Northern California, moved to the Bay Area in my twenties and have recently moved back to my a university town near my hometown to take care of my 80-year-old father.
It’s disconcerting to me that we are fighting the same fights as in the sixties and seventies. I remember so clearly the day Roe v. Wade became the law, the day the ERA lost ratification of the states and the day girls and women finally saw the birth control pill come into being.
It’s great to read the posts and comments here. I registered here in March but somehow couldn’t find the time to visit very often. I’m one of those that needs a swift kick sometimes to move on. I’m extremely grateful you all are here to greet us.
So glad to see you here. After I had been lurking on dkos for months and months that giant 900-1000 comment diary you did about abortion was my first get my feet wet at commenting experience! I also garned my first “fuck you” from someone, and a “stupid bitch” to go with it. . .so I felt I had a very successful first go around as a commenter.
So you can see that you are a “sentimental favorite” of mine and I hope you will enjoy your stay over here where we tend to do a lot more listening and far less, if any, name calling.
Welcome, welcome, welcome!
Your comments on the abortion diary were so welcomed. I’ve never been a faint-of-heart feminist but I was taken aback by many of the vicious replies in that thread. Now I’ve come to realize being called names is a point of honor somehow, who knew along with paisley and tie-dye the sixties would come back to haunt is in much the same way regarding our rights as women.
I am proud to be a ‘sentimental favorite’ of yours, it is an honor. It feels so rich and warm to be surrouded by so many women who I’ve admired on Kos, moiv, catnip, bumblebums, sallycat, susanhu, cabingirl, diane101, lorraine, the list goes on and on.
We have so much to be encouraged about. I feel like I was stuck in quicksand and now I’m free to roll up my sleeves and do the work we were meant to do. So thank you all once again for providing the
space to do just that. No more exhausting fighting just to be heard, nope, onward and upward as it should be.
I don’t mean to leave out the wonderful fellas that do so much for our side. Madman and Booman, spiderleaf and pyrrho, and the others I’ll be running into.
I am giddy with the possibilities. I feel like a southern belle who had a ‘spell’ but whose come to in a place where I belong. Color me happy, indeed.
caliberal,
I just saw this, a couple days on.. and my heart is thumping. I’m so flattered to be included in that list of wonderful women, and coming from you especially.
I can’t think of what I’ve ever said to earn this sentiment, but you’ve made me happy.
Don’t I feel sheepish, having to re-post a comment from the previous thread after it had been made redundant. Anyhoo, I’d be really curious to see how membership has spiked here yesterday and today. As for introduction, well, I’ve been a member for slightly less than an hour now, and like others I’ve seen commenting in this thread, am a dKos refugee. I’m a 35-year-old (yesterday in fact!) self-employed IT geek, a Mac-head, and wannabee-serious photographer, living in DC with the A/C going full-blast. Fairness and the enviroment are my particular political interests, but I might weigh in on science & technology too. I’m really excited to see this “World” feature, and look forward to getting some international perspective.
Whoo-hoo! Go Mac-heads!
Between the whole kerfluffle at That Other Blog, and Jobs’s revelation that “yes, indeed, we’re switching to Intel,” it was a pretty rough b-day. Apple’s going to have to really boost the RDF generators the next couple years.
Brother Feldspar! It was fun meeting you in Harpers Ferry the other week, and it’s nice to see you here!
That was just about the best little day trip I’ve ever done — I’m so glad I went up there to meet so many great people, and see such a wonderful little town! I hope we can duplicate that sort of thing over here, or at least keep in contact with the dcKossacks … I do believe I saw carnacki wandering around here somewhere.
Here I am. Great seeing you here!
Geeks and Mac-heads, important ingredients in this mix! Glad to have you over at our frog pond and look forward to your participation.
Welcome brotherfeldspar!
You and your gracious co-hostess diane101 must have cramped typing hands and bleary eyes from giving such a warm welcome to so many newbs & refugees. Color me Duly Impressed; you are a credit to this site!
I’m reminded of my old college advisor: the first class I had with him had about 60 students in it. The first day of class, he goes down the roll and everyone answers “here” or raises their hand. He then goes down the roll again, this time calling out people’s names and pointing to them; he had matched faces to names that quickly (and got about 50 out of 60 correct). Perhaps you could duplicate the feat by giving us our ages in another thread…. 😉
me of the faulty brain synapses? That would be a feate for certain. There was a time when I could meet a room full of people and remember all of their names, and some bit of personal info about them. But I was younger then and hadn’t become a blog addict yet.
I am lucky these days to even remember my own name. Actually I have used my screen name so much lately I tend to think that is actually my name. But I would dearly love to have a big meet up someday or travel to many of the ones going on around the country and put a face and a few bits of info together with the screen names. Yep, that would make me very happy.
Thank you for your kind words, but even though we might accept paypal here, I don’t think we do credit.
Hugs
Shirl
for the geeks!
woot!
Hi, I just came over and joined here after lurking at dK since November.
I am 36yo freelance musician in Colorado, spouse, no kids, 2 cats.
I’m one of the loonies who subscribes to the assorted conspiracy hypotheses about the crime family, their evil henchmen, and their evil designs to profit from the flushing of this country down the freakin’ toilet.
But don’t worry, I don’t post much, just enjoy reading all the intelligent discourse.
Thanks for the welcome.
New here too. If there aren’t any other conspiracy loonies here I hope you will keep us up to date. The truth is in there somewhere.
our Booman Tribe ambassador. She knows how to keep the welcome wagon going and the party rolling. Thanks for all your hard work.
To all the “youngsters” that have just arrived, we welcome you with open arms. Our voices growing as one wil take this crime laden administration down.
A little about me…I am an almost 53 year old(6/25) mother and grandmother, with little “formal” education but graduated from that same “School of hard Knocks” as Diane did. Experience is the best teacher as long as one grasps the lesson. I have as yet to write a diary but never hesitate to put my 02 cents worth in the comment thread.
I was a very apathetic voter until BushCo came on the scene and bought the election in 2000. It is my life’s mission to remove this idiot from his throne and will not ever give up because I owe that much to my beautiful grand daughter.
Enough said. I know you newbies will find it much more relaxed here for the time being anyway…lol! Peace to all. Namiste!
I figure I should say something, finally. If Soj gave the 411 on his/her name, well…
this is actually kind of difficult as I’m asking myself these things alot lately already… who am I? what am I doing? where am I going? how can I effect change?
anyway, I’m 36 living in NYC but at heart still a Midwesterner (I loved living in Chicago, but NY not so much). I work on the periphery of the entertainment industry and am slowly building a network of politically-minded people to work on projects with. One of my core beliefs is that things have gotten so out of hand with our corporate oligarchy (now verging on fascism thanks to Bush) that only a sea change will do any good and that one of the ways to create such a shift is through culture. It almost has a magickal/spiritual aspect for me, much like ghostdancer above.
As you can tell, I’m not only a progressive but a bit of an outsider in other ways, with interests ranging from magick (Crowley, RA Wilson, Grant Morrison) to conspiracy theories (RA Wilson again, among others) to esoteric anarchism (Hakim Bey). I’m trying to figure out how to tie all this together and, as I said, to effect change in the world. I occasionally write fiction as well as the random blog posting and such, though still unpublished. My goal this year is to fix that.
I’m also trying to spend less time online to focus on such things… but aren’t we all.
oh. and I’m an man, baby </austin powers>
Hi all –
Another refugee…
Actually I was here real early on, but with few hours in the day lately have mostly read Dkos for the news.
I’m 54 and feel as if I’m in the Twilight zone. Another war, women’s issues back-burnered while the boys deal with “the important shit”. Riiiiight…..
Well, I have less physical energy (I’m saving it for my second black belt grading in a couple of weeks) this time around, but the rest of me is pretty determined that I’m not going to sit quietly by.
Other specs – produced my only child at the age of 40, special needs (fairly highly gifted), homeschooled him for the two years of middleschool. Interesting conversations with him today on why I’ve been staring at the computer real upset for the past couple of days. Funny, he seems to “get it” far more than many do…
I did my senior year of college thesis on the relationship between civil rights and women’s rights, blending two courses that I was taking at the time into one paper. I had to get both professors to agree to that. My women’s studies prof agreed instantly and was very excited about it (um, this was a little before the days when we all realized that there was a common thread) but my black studies professor – male – needed some real convincing.
At least he LISTENED…
And thanks to all here for listening to me and the other refugees.
I hope that I can contribute – and learn – here.
Hi auntdeen! Back in the early 90s, I did a junior year paper on the interplay between the early suffragists and the abolitionists, and another on the interplay between feminists and the PLO. I didn’t limit my “women” papers to women’s studies either – at one point the guy I was seeing joked that I was having so much trouble writing my American Presidency paper because there had never been any female presidents.
The pie stuff, and especially attempting to explain the pie stuff to my usually pretty enlightened hubby, has brought a lot back for me.
Anyway, I hope all of us will learn a lot from each other in the days to come, and that you’ll be less upset at the computer.
Hi, I just decided to join up here today–althought I’ve heard a lot about, change is hard for me! 🙂 I’m Saira, I’m 27 and i live in Vegas. I just graduated law school and I’m trying to figure out what area I want to go into.
I’m so happy to see a lot of familiar (and new!) names here.
before posting. I meant to say “although I’ve heard a lot about this site”
Hi, my name is David. I’m 33, black man, married, with an infant daughter who is the apple of my eye. I was also driven here by the pie-fracas (and the NARAL stuff before that). I don’t claim to be the biggest feminist, but when people start talking about compromising on womens’ issues, I know black issues will be offered up next.
I’m a New Yorker, though I was born and raised in the Midwest. I’m a born-again Christian, having been baptized in 2001. I don’t think that’s anything to apologize for, and I don’t think it gives me the right to spit on everyone else’s beliefs.
I only commented occassionally over at DK, but I hope to be more active here.
I wonder if some people would still belittle women’s issues if they really considered the women in their lives — especially the women-to-be they are raising.
Two of the strongest feminists I know are my own spouse and his father…and in both cases, I think it’s because they understand that it’s not about women vs. men, but people vs. the system.
I think it simply comes down to “this issue isn’t that important to me, therefore, it must not be that important.”
Like I said in my profile, I’m not an ardent feminist, but I do recognize that people have different priorities than I do, and mine aren’t automatically more important than others.
Hi,
I’m a new member who just came by from Dailykos (long term lurker there). Saw someone’s comment about this site over there, and came to check it out, and ended up registering — and posting for the first time on a blog.
I am 37 year old, married with one kid, living in California, and one of those immigrant engineers working for the US high tech industry. Not a citizen yet, but my husband and i are pondering the decision — it is a question of “fight or flight” for us.
I got interested in American politics around 2002, after noticing things that were frightening similar to events that led to the “cultural revolution” in China. I’m particularly interested in media and propaganda related issues, hence the interest in blogs. This site seems to have a good “signal to noise ratio”, and positive vibes. I am glad to have found this place. Thank you for the warm welcome to new members — that’s something i haven’t seen elsewhere.
Hello All! Like others here, not sure what to say.
I’ve been a lurker for a long time (here and dKos). Never felt a need to register or comment until the past few days, when I logged on to read kos and felt that I had landed on the freeper site. Shocked doesn’t adequately describe my reaction. And like others, I felt very let down and discouraged by the reactions of both Kos and many of the reg diarists and commentors. I’m so happy to see this positive reaction by women and men, that I wanted to join and finally post.
I’m Cdn, female, 33, really into stats and health research: my b-ground is in epidemiology. No kids, but a big fat cat. I care deeply about what is happening in the US because my husband is dual cit, and all his family (outside ma and pa) are Americans living all over the States. Canada and the US are so entwined, I often wonder how many people realize these personal ties that exist between our countries when the anti-this and that rhetoric starts.
I love to see the progressive, intelligent debates that take place on sites like Booman. I hope to start contributing more.
I’m new here myself, but wanted to hop in and say ‘hi’. I’m also a Cdn woman, 30, no-kids, with family in the states. I look forward to your contributions here, and suspect I’ll run into you in the world diaries in the future. Welcome.
Thanks for the kind words zander! It’s been a very enlightening few days. One of the very few positives that can be taken from this whole mess, is that it has certainly given me the boost to get out of lurker mode … and it’s obvious I’m not the only one!
someone around here (sorry to have forgotten, so many new names, familiar names, new names to familiar personalities – I can’t keep up) posted:
“It’s an ill sow that can’t blow a silver lining out of it’s ear – or something like that.”
After I stopped laughing, I realized what wonderful things have happened as a consequence of the PW mess. Everything I’ve seen here so far seems to confirm that there will be many, many positives to come out of this.
I’ll still visit there now and then, sort of like the college graduate heading back to hang out with Melissa and Heather and the rest of the high school crowd once in a while…but I’ve made Booman my homepage.
Most of you on dKos know me, but for the uninformed:
Glad to be here with all you fine folks…
i’m a lurker and sometimes comment poster at Dkos. I know the pie thing was going on but didn’t have time/interest in reading it, but i appreciate the women who fought the battle on our behalf. Maybe it comes with age (recently having turned 40), but i’m a lot mellower about that stuff than i was in my 20s when i was a ranting lesbian feminist full of anger. I don’t have time for anger anymore, i prefer to take a spiritual approach to confrontation.
I’m incredibly impressed with the knowledge of folks at dkos and all the incredible research and commentary. The testosterone level however is annoying. I first started to realize things were a little odd last year when John Stewart had his moment on crossfire and they all thought that was the greatest thing ever. SO if the pie thing made everyone so angry that they wanted to come to a separate space, then i will follow (but still lurk at dkos).
I am am unattached 40 year old jewish lesbo jock in brooklyn, NY. I belong to the most amazing progressive lefty synagogue (as a newly practicing jew) where i am also on the board. of course, our rabbi is a lesbian. In my 9-5 life, i’m a social services administrator, policywonk, phd type. i hate bush and his gang and wait for his impeachment.
I just turned 40. Two kids, one teenage daughter who is going to be 16 soon and one 5 year old son who has Freeman Sheldon Syndrome. My husband is active military with 16 years in and has done one tour in Iraq. Before my son came along I was a caterer and even before that I co owned a landscaping company and was a juvenile probation officer (which didn’t help me at all in dealing with my own teenager!). I raise German Shepherds and love to grow things and garden. Having a hard time being a stay at home mom these past five years, but probably only have another year that my son will need me so close at hand. Left Dailykos today sadly. I don’t really have any political support though in this predominantly Southern military community, and therefore I definately don’t have any female support at all for my political views and would rather drink Drano than become the model military wife. So here I am. Also glad though too.
You have given me more perspective about what it’s like to be a military spouse than anyone I have ever known — and I have known a few military spouses.
((hugs}}
As I took a moment and a deep breath, following my own advice (sometimes a rarity with me, I am absolutely overwhelmed by the numbers and names of all of you joining us over the past day or so. I see so many I recognize from dkos, so many I admire, and the collective talent, passion, dedication, thoughtfulness and down right beautiful folks you all are is just awe inspiring. Talk about an out of body experience!
This infusion of “new blood” can only mean great things for this community on booman.
So very glad you all found your way here, and we really do care about what you have to say and your views on things.
I wish I could add an audio tag that would play the “Velcome” song from Caberet that keeps running through my head. . .seems to be closely followed by the Beatles verson of “help”. . . . (just a little private chuckle)
Don’t tell anyone, but that Diane is loony tunes. . .she has two diaries up and is monitoring everything else on this blog as well. Wonder what vitamins she takes?
WELCOME everyone!! Glad you are here. . .lets hear from you.
Hey it’s pretty easy to do this when I just hand over to you one of my diaries to tend and host.
I feel like we are in a border town, welcoming battle weary refugees , standing here with a bottle of water, a blanket, a nice cot to curl up on, a little food and most of all warm hugs to you all.
Most of the regular posters here have pretty much distanced ourselves from the DK in the last few months so we are calm and rested and ready to take you into the fold.
One of the best parts of this site is getting to know all of you, not just your political views but your personal histories. That is just so exciting and maybe why this place functions so well. Hard to get mad at someone when you know a little about them.
So that’s why I put up these diaries, to get you warm and rested to fight the bigger fight.
BTW the inspiration for these diaries was from Mindmouth, a member of this site who has not been heard from for many weeks and would appreciate some feedback about if anyone know. MM if you see this, please get back here and post.
Anyway MM as we call her, was the first to put up a tell us about you diary, and when she drifted off these pages I decided to keep up the tradition she started.
If I don’t get around to giving you a personal welcome, please know that I have read all your bio’s and appreciate each and every one of you. In future we will all get to know each other better as we build this incredible site.
everyone for the warm welcome! It appears that there a lot of us who are transplants from dKos. As for me, I am retired, but my mind has not and I cherish learning new things. It appears that there are many people on this site who are willing to share their expertise.
I was born and raised in Chicago and it is a city that I love. I am not a religious person; however, I found that the teachings of Buddhism answered a lot of my questions and helped me to find some semblance of peace in my life.
I take classes in Pilates, love movies, especially foreign ones, and enjoy reading. Right now I am in the process of downsizing my “stuff” and learning one does not need a lot of “stuff” to be happy.
Again, thanks for the warm welcome.
Male, 23, Virginian.
Came to BoomanTribune — though not giving Daily Kos “the boot” yet — because, as you all know, Daily Kos is aching under various sectarian strains, growing pains, and the malaise of afactualism. BoomanTribune seems to the consensus choice for a “new colony” for small-scale fact-based chattering to escape the frenzied mess at Daily Kos. Also, there are a lot more women here — if the poll’s to be believed — and if my blogging experience serves me well that should lead to a more stable and calm (read: useful and satisfying) atmosphere.
Also: spellchecked comments!
Don’t worry, I won’t muck the place up.
Very Cool to see you here. You are so level headed I would have never guessed that you were 23. I’m just stunned by that, pleasantly so.
I’m 40, male, Californian, single (looking, and not afraid to ask for help looking!), heterosexual, scientifically trained, a Nation reader. I’ve never voted for the winner of a Presidential election.
I noticed a month ago that a lot of the posts at DKos I liked were cross-posted here. Then I noticed that some of my thoughts were greeted with snarky comments like “Typical far left mentality”. Then I noticed how I liked The Nation’s policy about offensive ads a lot better than Kos’ explanation.
For completeness, here is what The Nation has to say:
“Although the relationship of the First Amendment to commercial advertising is complex, we start with a strong presumption against banning advertisers because we disapprove of, or even abhor, their political or social views. But we reserve (and exercise) the right to attack them in our editorial columns.
“The Nation does not consider itself bound by the standards that must be applied to just any public forum. Our pages are primarily given over to articles that are consistent with the views of the editors. While we also publish articles and letters from readers that diverge from, or even diametrically contradict, the views of the editors, this is not out of a sense that our pages should be open to all or because we believe we are obliged to achieve balance. Whatever we publish appears in the magazine because in our judgment the views expressed deserve to be called to the attention of our readers by us. We are a magazine of limited circulation that enjoys no monopoly on the attention of our readers. They obtain other views in other places, and, through that process, determine for themselves what views to accept or reject.
“Advertising is different. We accept it not to further the views of The Nation but to help pay the costs of publishing. We start, therefore, with the presumption that we will accept advertising even if the views expressed are repugnant to the editors. The only limits are those that grow out of our interest in assuring that the advertising does not impede our use of Nation editorial columns to say what we want. We assume that our readers will have sufficient knowledge to judge for themselves the merits of commonly known products (such as cigarettes).
“In imposing these limits we will refrain from making judgments based on our opinions of the particular views expressed in an advertisement. If the purpose of the advertisement is to sell a product or service rather than to express a view, we will allow ourselves greater rein in making judgments about suitability. This reflects our view that commerce is less sacrosanct than political speech.
“When we open our pages to political advertising that may be repugnant to the editors, we are furthering our editorial commitment to freedom of speech and using space in which we refrain from articulating editorial policy in a way that fosters diversity in expression of opinion.”
Over the years, although particular readers have objected to particular ads, on balance, we believe this policy has served the magazine and its readers well. Of course, we do not agree with the Office of National Drug Control Policy that buying occasional “dime bags” of marijuana supports terrorism. Letters like those of John Browner, Sandra Schachat, Susan Bright, Matthew Landkammer, Charles Monroe-Kane and Robert Field suggest to us that most of our readers don’t either. They seem to agree that the way to fight bad speech is with better speech. We hope that on reflection Donald Hodel, Chris Kirshbaum and others who have objected to our running this ad, after weighing the pros and cons, will reconsider.
THE EDITORS
the wonderful thing about Tiggers is Tiggers are wonderful things!!!
Tigger is my totem.
we’ll see what we can do! ;^D
What part of California….and then we’ll take it from there!
Just south of San Francisco. 🙂
Aloha, from NYC.
I’m a 36 year-old journalist living in NYC with my sheepdog/terrier mix, Max, and my partner of five years. We also have a black and blue Japanese fighting fish. His name is Bruiser. I love kickboxing and work out twice a week.
I found this outpost by way of Daily Kos. The ad is so 1950’s. Yuck.
A little more about me: I read everything, from Robert Novak (he’s scary, isn’t he, but oh so connected) to the wonderful Nic Kristof. Does everyone realize there’s a genocide going on? I’m sure you all do. I also read The Note.
But I’m remiss: My screen name is NoIvory, as in no hunting elephants and no to the Republican agenda.
Thank you for providing a place to mingle and maximize my time at work.
OH, I vote. In fact I voted for the president in 2000. You know, Al Gore.
Hi – And thanks to whoever it was on Kos that mentioned this site. Even not being extremely feministically (or prudishly) inclined I was disgusted at the nonsense, ie, pissing contests, going on over there. I wondered if it were some kind of overcompesation for being considered the less macho political party. The pie business was the final straw, not so much the ad, but Kos’ response to the outcry. I was “AnotherCtDem” over there but had been too depressed after the election to contribute much. Things seem to be improving for us some, but you’d never know it at Kos – another gripe of mine: the self derogatory negatisim of the Kossacks.
I’m a sub teacher, married, one college aged kid, one dog. Main issue: Viet Nam Redux. Thank you all!!!
come on now all you bring strong Booman Tribbers, lets give all these newcomers some MOJO, many of you know each other from Dkos, so MOJO your kindred spirits.
MOJO
MOJO
MOJO
MOJO
MOJO
and a little Carpal Tunnel….happily so for the last 36 hours!
Other than the early mojo fest diaries – I don’t ever remember giving this many 4’s!
Jancw here. Was on kos for a long time. I missed the pie fight, and today caught up on what happened. I always thought kos was bottom-up, but I guess that is subject to change. If you want to make community happen, it must be bottom up. That’s all there is to it. I was wondering what happened to kos this morning, nothing interesting in the news there today, and then I realized my favorite people weren’t posting…
I’m an indexer and taxonomist and generic-worker-with-access-to-words. I’m nearly 51, and am seriously to the left of liberal, and a feminist.
You’ll all be happy to know that my Sunday Griot series is carried live here on Booman Tribune every Sunday morning at 8 AM or so Pacific time, so if you’re a Daily Kos refugee and weren’t reading it over there, you can miss it over here too.
Seriously, it’s very odd. Over there I have a couple dozen people who comment and recommend every week, and usually read by a couple hundred people. Last week here on BT about 22 people read it, including me. What do you people all do Sunday mornings, sleep or something? 🙂
I’m not “new” here in the sense of having recently registered, which I did fairly early on as an act of solidarity/support for Booman in taking the plunge and launching this blog. However, I have been inactive here; with the recent migration here of such a large number of many of my favorite posters, that changes now. So in that sense I’m a newbie here.
I’ve always been sort of in an edgy situation at dKos anyway, I am not a Democrat as an article of faith, I am a leftist as matter of principle, sometimes Democrat as matter of tactical activity. Can someone tell me if this is also a “Democratic blog” first and foremost? What I can offer to a progressive community is the experience of over a quarter century of involvement in community organizing and progressive issue organizing. I found that to be less than highly valued at dKos, in fact served to leave me very much on the “fringe” there, which is why I have chosen to focus my serious writing at places like Liberal Street Fight and Unbossed. I’ll be turning 50 this summer, divorced, childless, small business owner, and huge fan of women’s basketball.
Glad to see you here. I do hope you post some of your writings on community and issues organizing. I’ve followed some of your posts at LSF in the past, and thought them very insightful and useful (I almost typed inciteful, and they may be that too).
So much that we do seems to be running in place… I think it’s time we started moving forward toward specific goals and figuring out ways of accomplishing those goals.
Welcome to the Trib
This is my first day at Booman and I’m so happy to see so many familiar “faces”. Yes, I’m a dKos refugee. As I commented in another diary: I didn’t see the ad, didn’t read Markos’ comment, but what I read today on DailyKos was enough to bring me here. And what a lovely frog pond with lily pads and lotus blooming! I look forward to jumping right in!
One thing that you’ll soon learn about me is that my puns are always intended.
I have lived a largely apolitical life. As I get older I find that I can’t, in good conscience, just sit by and let things happen around me. I started reading DailyKos after it was mentioned in a New York Times article and became a devoted reader as the election approached. It has been good for me to have a source of inspiration for not sitting on my butt doing nothing!
I have the sense that here, in addition to finding that inspiration, I will also enjoy a community where intellectual ideas can be discussed, questions can be asked and respectfully addressed, and a good time can still be had by ALL.
That said, I’m running terribly late for a tarot class. I also am, in no particular order and leaving lots of things out:
a Smithie
a shoe lover
a Bostonian (by way of San Francisco)
a smart ass
a writer
a tree hugger
an aspiring witch
a bibliophile
an oenophile
a shameless flirt
The issues I care about and hope to explore here include women’s issues, the environment, health care, the arts, education, protecting privacy, stopping our spiral into fascism, making the US a better global citizen.
See you all again soon!
If my temp job paid actual money, I’d be a much happier oenophile
Kos user numkber 16400 reporting for duty. Also a Blog for America poster, but not so much lately. I left without a GBCW at BFA. I haven’t quite left Kos, yet, but it seems likely. I understand the defense of Kos, but, as I wrote in one comment:
My user name’s pronounced “Matt – uh – lee – and – ee,” created by munging together the first names of my family, in reverse age order. if I’d known I was going to be using it so much, I’d have picked something else. 😉
Hello, everyone.
I’m the latest subscriber to the Triubune (OMG–is that like saying “Frisco” in SF?).
The handle may be new to most, familiar to a few others, as I’ve blown in from DKos. I wasn’t a diarist but I wasn’t afraid to share my opinion, either.
As for me: 32, married 9 years last Wed. to the best husband on the planet and what’s more–I have 2 nieces, 10 & 8, who are da bomb because I learn so much from them. I want them to be able to while learning how to handle the BS of race/gender…or is that gender/race?? LOL!
Oh, did I mention our two cats? We’ll be working on the human children soon.
Anyway, I just want to take a seat and get comfy (as I told Marisacat&Madman in the Marketplace over at the LiberalStreetFighter, my new homepage) for a while.
But as a newbie, I wanted “speak” as I walk in the front door.
AP
52, married, no kids, 2 cats, a dog, and between ferrets. We had up to 4 ferrets at one time but our current residence is not set-up to corral the little animated slinkies.
Became politically active during the Viet Nam War and slowly burned-out over the next 15 years. My activity during the VNW first attracted and the caused me to support Senator Kerry as I felt a certain obligation to a leader of VVAW. Getting re-activated and hope to do some research and a little writing for Dems in NM in 2006.
A techno-hippie compu-geek, I’ve been writing software, doing some hardware engineering, building computers, & etc since 1971. Currently I, and a few friends, are working on an Artifical Intelligence project on our own dime. It looks like we’ve cracked the Natural Language problem – let everyone know by the end of the summer!
My primary interest and what I do all the live long day (doo-dah, doo-dah) is developing and tying Formal Logic systems to/from Chaos mathematics, Complexity Theory, Information Theory, and Cognitive Science. This is where my interest in Finance and Economics stems as there is a tremendous amount of really crappy data floating around and emitting from the various markets. I have also done some rooting around in Communication Theory and Information Flow from my interest in the differing ways people transmit information – or fail to transmit information.
Never finished my degree as I found people would pay me to learn computers, math, and geeky stuff instead of me having to pay.
Got fed up with SillyCon valley in 1987 when I realized my work was being used to build the systems that built the weapons systems that, even as we speak, are raining bombs on all & sundry. Singing a rousing chorus of “Take This Job and Shove It” …
We moved to Iowa City, Iowa. Mucked around Iowa until 7 years ago when we got fed up with -50 F winters and 104 F summers and moved to the Central Mountains of New Mexico.
My wife and I run our own business, since 1985, make a little money & have a lot of fun.
Got here by way of Daily Kos. Lurked there for a while but never posted. Saw this site mentioned, came over checked things out, found a bunch of my favorite posters and here I am making my first comment. I’m a 28 year old Central New Yorker who works with developmentally disabled individuals and is going back to school in the fall. I used to be pretty apolitical, just letting things happen, always waiting for things to change. Finally realized that things won’t change if I just sit around and wait. I already like the atmosphere here and thanks so much for the warm welcome.
Gosh, this is uncomfortable — I’m usually the person who, when it’s group introduction time, is hiding behind a post. I’m a 53-year-old woman, have lived most of my life in the Bay Area, work as a deposition reporter, lifelong progressive but not necessarily wed to the Democratic Party (I used to vote for “Rockefeller Republican” types, but after the Clinton impeachment vowed “Never again”).
Also several cats and a love of gardening. Diane101, I can’t wait for your garden blogs. I have to say it’s really strange to join a blog where people aren’t bitching about your high membership number and instead, literally, roll out the welcome wagon. By the way, do you ladies have any good coupons to offer me??? 😉
Enough about me. This is my dog Sparky, who came to me through Dalmatian Rescue about a year ago.
is adorable, babaloo! I just want to give him/her a big kiss.
Regarding Gardening: If I may be so forward, there’s a nice blog that offers tips now and then on gardening and is just a great place to visit for photos of farm and rural life. It’s called Rurality. The woman who runs the site makes soap for a living.
I’ve actually been around for a little while, but haven’t availed myself of the lovely welcome wagon service provided by diane101. So, the formal introduction –
I’m a 30 year old, married male with an exceedingly cool almost 11 month old son. I’m a Ph.D candidate in sociology at the University of Oregon in Eugene, and I regularly teach women’s and gender studies courses +ahem+.
I started checking this spot out a couple of months ago after seeing an ad dkos that, while not titillating me with pie, informed me that if I like dkos, I’d love Booman Tribune.
Some advertising dollars well spent Booman!
I stayed because many of my favorite writers at dKos post here on a much more frequent basis, and it’s easier to catch these posts before they scroll into the ether. There’s also some great upcoming talent here as well, and a much more hospitable environment. I haven’t been red-baited once here! In other words, all the snark with none of the snide.
But I’ll be honest, I came because PastorDan posts here regularly – color me a “Secular Humanist for PastorDan.” Interfaith dialogue is essential in this day and age, and I’m glad he’s part of the conversation. Oh, and he has cookies.
I haven’t felt comfortable at Kos for a long time…it’s seemed like a boys club since long before the pie fight. I guess I’m just one of those humorless feminists.
I’m 49, married, and live in Oregon. I actually have a certificate in women’s studies, from back before you could get a degree in it. I spent 20+ years toiling in the bits in Silicon Valley and the Silicon Forest.
At the moment, I’m busy trying to fix the Democratic Party. I signed up as a precinct person about 3 years ago, and was elected to the DNC last December, in time to vote for Chairman Dean. I spend a lot of time volunteering and trying to help the Party get itself together.
I write about my adventures with the DNC sometimes at The American Street or Western Democrat.
40something, male, married to Frenchwoman, live in SF Bay Area, not-quite-four-year-old daughter (the apple of my eye), filmmaker, cat.
but just happened to register during the great pie fight (think blazing saddles).
I’m a 22 year old Minnesotan studying Business Management at the University of Minnesota/Crookston. I am a certified storm spotter and long-time weather enthusiast.
I am liberal hear me roar. My girlfriend is German, I desperately want to learn German fluently so I can join her.
Not much else to tell at the moment. I’m the same guyermo from dkos, but provided a different e-mail.
39, male, Jewish, native Californian, adoptive Oklahoman. American historian by trade. Finishing up a year in NC, but heading back to the Sooner State in a couple weeks. Oh yes, as the name suggests, I’m a Green.
I’m adding boomantribune (BMT?) to my daily reads (as if I need another time sink). I’ll still also be over at dKos. Not sure anyone cares at either place, but “hi” to the various kossack exiles (and everyone else) here!
This feels like Paris in the 1920s <g>.
Hi. I’m eugene.
I’ve been a member here for a while, but have only posted very sporadically.
I’m 25, was born and raised in Orange County, California. After my undergraduate education at UC Berkeley (Go Bears!) I moved to Seattle where I am a grad student in history.
I post a lot over at dKos where I try to kick the shit out of the newcomers – folks who have been alienated by Bush, but have not shed their illiberal ideas. I consider myself a democratic socialist, and am convinced that capitalism is a giant scam. I also believe we will lose the 2006 and possibly the 2008 elections, mainly because we still have not done the necessary work of reforming the Democratic Party, as the recent anti-Dean infighting makes all too clear.
eugene !!!
I’m so happy to see you here, too. I share your view of cap…..capi…..capit……captita…….
ARGGGH I can’t type it without “rapacious” in front of it.
Name after name of people I’ve admired and learned from over the last few months keep popping up. It’s like a wonderful party with presents for everybody.
Hi just noticed in your comment you were raised in OC, that’s where I am, currently Santa Ana, but long time in Costa Mesa. Where did you live? You are near the age of two of my children who went to school in Costa Mesa.
Welcome to the site.
I grew up in Tustin – all 18 years.
My sister is student teaching at Wilson Elementary in Costa Mesa.
My daughter lives in Tustin and her kids go to school there. She lives on Nissan Rd. I think it is.
What schools did you go to there and what do you think the best schools are if you don’t mind. My daughter is having an awful time finding the right school for her kids.
Trying to think where Wilson Elementary school is. I used to live on Wilson down near Placentia.
If she lives on Nisson then she’s almost certainly in the Tustin High School boundaries. I graduated from Tustin in ’97 – the school gets a lot of shit in the newer parts of town but it is academically extremely solid. My parents and their families all went to Foothill High, which is also good. I know nothing of the new high school, Beckman, aside from the fact that it has amazing facilities thanks to the Mello-Roos tax.
As to elementary schools, I’m far less familiar with those these days – I was in elementary school in the ’80s. TUSD has opened like 10 new elementary schools in the last 10 years, which has almost certainly affected all the others. People used to speak highly of Nelson, which is on Browning not far from where your daughter probably lives. In terms of middle schools, CT and Utt were quite good. Your daughter probably lives in the Currie boundary, and I don’t know how that one has fared in the last 10 years.
My mother has worked in the district for over 10 years as office staff, and so we know a LOT of people in the TUSD. My sister is hoping to finish her student teaching in the Tustin district and may get hired there. In any case I can certainly ask them about elementary and middle schools.
Thank for the info, I copied and printed your comment and will give to my daughter. One Grandson goes to Bestwick and not sure which middle school my daughter goes to. If you do find out more, you can always email me. Thanks!
Either way, they’ll all end up as Tustin High Tillers. It’s a great school. Hopefully some of my old teachers are still there. Some of the best teachers I ever had.
I came here on the recommendation of a few people, through Liberal Street Fighter and then jumped off kossackwomen.
I am an occasional poster but mostly a lurker on dkos — after the latest I’m not sure I’ll go back.
I’m a 45 y.o. single female living in the deep south.
5 dogs, 6 cats and an acre to plow. (you know, if I were into that sort of thing.)
here for the news and updates and very appreciative to find a quiet place for a bit to rest my brain.
Thank you kindly for the warm welcome.
Last night on dKos digdugboy posted a diary titled “The Sanctimonious Women’s Studies Set” in which he asked what it meant to be a feminist. This is what I said, because, as some of you already know, this is who I am:
digdugboy didn’t have an answer, and maybe no one else does, either. Maybe feminism is like obscenity: we just know it when we see it. 😉
Thanks to diane101 and shirlstars for so consistently manning (womanning?) the Welcome Wagon. It’s become a tradition of the site and I hope we never lose it.
I’m 47 years old, black, divorced with one adult daughter, one cat, (and another one and a quarter cats that are not mine, but they don’t believe that). I live in California. I don’t post diaries all that often, mostly because I’m the quiet, observer type anyway, and also I’ve been pretty busy. Except for today, when I’ve pretty much ignored all my work and everything else I have to do in favor of reading all the new posts and about all the new people and so on. I have decided that I am not to blame for any of that tho.
I’ve not been very political in my life, and really am still not, as far as campaigns and horse races and all that go. I see the value of participating in those, and I do so, but my main interest lies in working to influence the culture of everyday life. Which will, of course, allow for more real progressive politicians to be nominated and elected, eventually.
I have been a liberal since birth and was blessed to be surrounded by people who made no apology for standing up for social justice, human rights, civil rights, equality for all, starting with my mom, even though she never really ever said anything about it. She just lived it. All through my growing up years we had people of every color, ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation and anything else, as visitors to our home and as friends and “familiy”. I never learned to think of anyone as “other”, and I am very grateful for that, even though it didn’t exactly prepare me for encounters with those that thought of me as “other”. I wouldn’t have had it any other way though.
Well that’s more than enough about me. I am so glad to see the new faces here, and look forward to hearing the various views and thoughts of everyone, and reading their diaries. Welcome to you all.
what do y’all call yourselves anyway? – I’m sure it says somewhere but I gotta go do some stuff; I just figgered it was finally time to sign up here since I’ve been meaning to do it for awhile.
I’m not going to say too much about myself in introduction. Those who recognize my username from dkos may think my most noticeable attribute is my staunch defending of Kerry in the periodic dkos bashfests. Funny thing is, I never understood Kerry that much or felt so strongly supportive of him until I started defending him at dkos – which I initially started doing because I thought the bashfests were really stupid and unproductive to the Democratic Party. It was not at all my intent when I signed up at daily kos to spend most of my time there defending Kerry; it just ended up that way. In my research to answer the usually-totally-bogus charges made over there, I’ve come to know much more about JK and my admiration has really grown. I do have some criticisms (that I will keep to myself), but I think the good far outweighs the bad, and am happy to call myself a “Kerry-blogger”.
But I digress. I understand the topic of real interest here is pie, and especially pie fights. I have stayed out of the pie fights, but I absolutely understand why some folks are really, really annoyed about the ads – and even more so by Markos’ responses. But what REALLY pushed me over the line (which I was pretty close to because of the ongoing JK-bashing anyway), is the ad that appeared today. While Markos may have had nothing to do with it, I took it as a slap in the face to those who have expressed unhappiness with the original ad.
Anyway, I’ve been enjoying Booman Tribune on occasion over the last few weeks, and now I plan to spend a little more time here, and probably cross-post from my own recently-opened blog. I’m not giving up dkos entirely, but I’m going to try to wean away from it – it just isn’t as fun as it used to be.
As for my personal tidbits. I have a cat. I live in PA. I sometimes attend grad school (2 classes to go on MSIS) and I work full-time in a geek-job. I am a committed Democrat, and currently am diverting almost all of my spare time to various activities that I think can help improve the party. Like positive blogging on our guys an gals. Check it out at my (new, little) blog, Freedom’s Fire, Brightly Burning. And other Info tech stuff for our local party. Which I really gotta go do some now…
Thanks for the big welcome and I hope you don’t mind this rambling post that really tells you almost nothing about me that you were probably looking for 😉
Hello:
I’m Cathy in Louisiana. 42 and married.
I don’t need to say I’m a dedicated progressive, I’m sure. But, that’s what drives my desire to speak up. That and the fact that I usual have something to say about just about anything.
Pardon me. I’m exhausted. I may be recognizable to some from comments on Dailykos, also.
Okay y’all. . .we are having so much fun and meeting so many old and new friends we are opening up the big patio down by the Frog Pond to continue and carry on through the night! So if you don’t mind, please post your introductions
RIGHT HERE
And that way the page won’t take so very long to come up. We can hardly wait to hear from you and welcome each one of you to the Frog Pond. . .You’re gonna like it here. We think respect and civility are just plain common sense.
Have a good time, and jump right in
Hi — I’m barbwires at Kos; Barb to the friends I met at Harper’s Ferry. Testing toes in the water here because a lot of my favorite voices have either migrated or have been cross-posting. I’ll keep reading Kos, at least for C&J! I stay out of pie fights unless I have the biggest pie.
I’m a liberal democrat who lives in a reddish part of VA with my husband, several cats, two dogs, two birds and a pig. I’m a scientist and amateur flutist.
My top political issues are the need for universal health care and marital and reproductive rights (freedom of choice for all sexes).
Glad you came and tested the waters. If you like go to the new diary, and post a comment or just come to the party over there.
Maybe you would like to check out my diary on home birth vs hospital birth.
Welcome!
Male, law student, living in Washington D.C. I’ve lurked here for quite awhile and have always been so impressed by the quality of the discourse. Just having Booman and SusanHu here is enough to get me checking in multiple times a day.
Okay, so why did I finally register? I wanted to secure myself a nice low uid before things really pick up. Is that wrong of me? 🙂
Hello Boomaniacs and fellow travelers. I’ve wandered through here, mostly invisibibble, just looking around, as is my wont, for quite a while. I like this green and leafy vale, where strife is elsewhere.
I live in Orange County CA (Irvine), and pine for the fjords of Vermont whence I sprang a bit over 50 years ago. (can it be??)
I share a small apartment with 2 feline Americans. There’s a spouse, but he’s here only once every month or so (software contractor) – so I have lots of time to swan around doing what I want with nobody tugging at my sleeve and demanding explanations. This suits me quite nicely, but sometimes I wonder if I’m just indulging a not so salutary penchant for isolation.
Nice welcome wagon we have here, and lots of familiar names.
I was just scrolling through this site and noticed that you live in Irvine, I live in Santa Ana, very close to the border of Tustin. Good to find another OC member here. I pine for my birth state of Pa. from time to time, but I have been settled here for over 44 years now and quite happy to be in the best weather location in the continental United States. Don’t you agree.
Welcome to this site, glad to have you…..
Yes, the weather is pleasant, but lacks drama. Don’t you miss thunderstorms? And, what about fire flies?
The main irritant for me however, is the cost of living. It’s killing me. Rent here is just beyond all sanity. So, it looks like I’ll have to be crafting an exit strategy for the near future.
New Mexico maybe?
Thanks for the welcome!
Who need fire flies when we have fires….Just kidding of course.
I really don’t like too much drama in weather, I prefer not to be afraid of what the weather might bring. The last winter rain was enough for me. BTW here you can always go to the mountains if you want more weather.
How long have you lived here. Yes cost of living is high, but it has been a pretty gradual thing so adjustments have been made.
I do have a theory that all middle income people will eventually be driven from the coast here and forced to live inland by virtue of housing costs. I can’t even afford to live in Costa Mesa anymore. Too close to the coast.
Hi, my name is Deuc and I’m a pie war refugee.
Well, sort-of, I was never registered at DK and I don’t know how much I’ll post here, but I’m glad I know this place exists.
To those women who are disturbed/disgusted by the responses and reactions at DK, I’d just like to say something that I think isn’t said enough: that there are many men who feel the same way.
One minor complaint though, the comment and diary title font size is too small here.
Hi, all,
My name is Heather and I’ve been on the planet for 44 years.
I was FutureThought over on dKos. I’ve been discouraged by many of the puerile and mean-spirited comments to excellent diaries over there. I also got tired of the sneering at women and women’s issues, and it starts right at the top.
I got the pie ad in the face when I clicked on it to see whether the women in the picture were real or Barbie dolls. When the music started, my two sons (ages 5 and 9) came running over to see what was up. I closed that window but fast.
I’m all for good, wholesome, finger-licking-good sex, but I am not for the kind of male-directed fake sex that is so prevalent in our media. I worked as a stripper when I was in college, and saw a lot of porn as a result. The women frequently looked like they were in pain, and the view of female sexuality presented in porn is really unrealistic. I’ve since decided that one of the reasons that so many men are lousy lovers is because they get their ideas about female sexual response from porn flicks.
I grew up in Berkeley, and my political thoughts were molded by Watergate, People’s Park, the Vietnam War, seeing the National Guard tear-gas a third grade classroom, marching on the school board whenever they enacted a policy I didn’t like, listening to the speakers in Sproul Plaza, and hanging out with my mother when she did volunteer counseling at the Berkeley Women’s Center.
I’m a grrrl geek, and I worked as a programmer and then tech writer for 20 years. I’m married to a man who learned about female sexuality from women, not films. We have four children, the aforementioned sons and two teenaged daughters. We homeschool because we want our kids to be free to grow up in their own ways. I’m 44.
I self-identified as Pagan for many years, and still feel a lot of affinity for Pagan ways of describing the Divine. About 5 years back, I started looking for a spiritual community and found the Quakers. I’m a member of Santa Cruz Friends Meeting.
Lots of issues are important to me: peace, social justice, a humane economy, the environment, a broadening of American values like liberty and equal opportunity, human rights, etc.
I’d like to see Barbara Boxer in the White House.
Hi there – I’m a recent refugee from dKos myself, but I wanted to hop in here to say hi for a couple of reasons. 1 – Diane101 and shirlstars have been overwhelmed with welcoming the approximately 300 newcomers that have flocked here, and are (I hope) getting some rest. 2. This thread has grown to the point of crashing browsers, so it’s an opportunity for me to put my big, bad computer to good use.
There is also another Welcome thread (part 8) if you’d like to repost your intro where it’s more accessable – it’s over here.
Welcome – I hope you find this place to be as much of a peaceful, supportive retreat as I have.
Male, 37, living in Studio City, CA. Happily married and happy daddy of one beautiful little girl named Lucy, 3.5. Grew up in Baltimore and moved to L.A. with vague Hollywood aspirations. Wound up getting paid to write for movies and TV for about seven years before the writer’s strike in 2002. Took a break from the business to work a jobby job and bring in a steady income until we could afford to let me go be creative for a living again. Which I’m hoping to start real, real soon.
Found DKos after the November elections as I was flirting with my own blog (“The Termite,” don’t bother, it’s novice work), and got hooked. I’m not in any way disgruntled there despite recent shakeups, and very much hope that Booman (which I’ve heard great things about) will be an “AND” and not an “OR” for me. Hint, disgruntled Kossacks: blogging for the left need not be a team sport. Wounds will heal. Let this site’s new popularity be a net positive.
That’s it, I guess. Look forward to getting to know many of you.
Male, thirties. I live in NYC. Grew up first in the US as a small child then in Switzerland with Polish parents. I came back to the US for college. I’m now doing a Ph.D in history. I’m primarily interested in international affairs rather than domestic politics. I’m a little bit to the right of the average Kossak on the former, standard lib-dem on the latter. Not part of the big pie exodus – noticed this site through Jerome’s diaries.