Toadfish Monastery

What a great guy. A huge loss to the communities here and at TOP, and to the world. Every time someone mentions mesothelioma or asbestos (he didn't mention coming into contact with it but it's the most likely cause of his cancer and he may not have realized it if he did), I think of him and feel awful.

But when I think of Black Bart himself, I remember silly jokes, funny pictures, joyful roleplaying, and happy times.

RIP, Barty.

Thanks!

I remember how saddened we all were when St. John the Blasphemist died. His relative didn't say exactly why he died explicitly, but we all more or less knew what they were saying, and I felt crushed. Someone at another forum I visit suffered the same fate as him, and I was startled and crushed again even though I didn't know him as anything more than a friendly, if rather unintelligent, gamer. Intelligence doesn't matter when things like this happen. Nobody should have to feel the way they felt. I've felt that way myself as recently as yesterday, but I didn't take that last step like they did, thankfully.

The suddenness of Pieces's death means it must have been something dramatic as well, although she didn't seem depressed at all, so I doubt it was that. I hope it was a sudden heart attack, dead before she hit the floor, or something along those lines and not something worse. I'm playing horrible scenarios in my head of fires and guns and I hate it.

Anyway, on FSM Discussion, lately I've only been reading the Rant Rave & Misbehave, Miscellaneous Discussion, and some of the Serious Discussion forums. I've been busy with my day program and I've been feeling like if I'm not doing anything productive at home afterward, I shouldn't be enjoying myself either, so I don't ever read, forums or otherwise. That's why I'm concerned about my ability to participate here. Imagine that, a novelist who doesn't read. We'll see if that changes after tomorrow, when I move in with my fiancee.

EDIT: selfediting hold on

EDIT 2: Trying to calm down a bit...

Hello!

Someone invited me here a few years ago but I never posted until today. Might have been Qwertyuiopasd. I came back today to see if I could find more info on poor Pieces O' Nine.

I was around for the Great Schism but I didn't realize it was happening because I was still acclimating to the FSM forum dynamic. I find most of the regulars over there are nice people, and even Capellini has mellowed out dramatically in recent years. She was a fair, if brusque, administrator until she stepped down, after several years of infrequent visits due to her education schedule. I believe Black Bart is the new chief administrator which everyone was thrilled to hear, although he seems to be having a poor time with mesothelioma, so I don't know what's going to happen to the community if he goes too. His posts are increasingly rare, which makes me nervous because he's a swell guy.

Anyway, most of the nasty ones have left. The only nasty one left is Daftbeaker, but he's a likeable nasty one.

I wear an FSM pendant around my neck, because I like the character, the stories, and the community that built around it, but I dislike Bobby Henderson. Somebody stole a jolly roger I designed, featuring my then-insignia which was my stylized nose, and put it on a sheep husbandry textbook somewhere in Eastern Europe. (It had a sheep skull on it.) He posted it on the main page. I asked him to take it down due to copyright infringement and he ignored my emails for a few weeks, before I got Qwertyuiopasd involved. Bobby just credited me for "the awesome pirate flag!" I didn't want a credit, I wanted it removed. Jerk.

I'm making myself upset now. *breathes deeply*

I'm an aspiring novelist/poet, and some of my poetry can be found on my personal website: http://ados.ermarian.net/ None of my recent non-poetic fiction, nor my more recent poetry, can be found there, though. I'm trying to save it for profitable publishing now.

I'm an atheist, as in I don't believe in any form of deity. I'm not a hardline atheist who ardently believes that there absolutely is no deity, it's absolutely impossible, etc. though. More or less, I just don't care. Until and unless I can see supernatural stuff affecting me directly, I don't see the need to worry about it.

I absolutely hate the God of Abraham as depicted literally in the holy texts of the Abrahamic religions, and I especially hate the prophet Mohammed, for reasons which may be rude to detail here in my first post. Unfortunately, while I don't have a problem with offending the obnoxious types, sometimes my sarcasm hurts the feelings of otherwise friendly Christians, Muslims, or other religious people, which is something I hope to work on to a certain extent. I don't dislike Christians, Muslims, or other religious people themselves necessarily, because I know people tend to whitewash their own religions in their minds to suit their own beliefs, even if it conflicts with the standards of the organization. But I find it hard to restrain my loathing for anyone who condones cruelty to children or other innocents. I know this place is about peace and understanding, but if I have to handwave cruelty in the name of keeping the peace, I don't want to be here.

Please tell me I don't have to engage in apologetics, as long as I love the sinner, hate the sin, as some Christians say, because you seem like nice people and I could use some friendliness in my life.

Also, I like dragons a whole lot. 

Yikes, so she died not long after she made that post then. *shudders*

(I prefer "ADoS" by the way. Thanks for the welcome!)

I'm quite shocked. I was just reading a helpful post she made on December 21st as a moderator on the FSM forums and she seemed totally fine. She will be dearly missed over there as well. Is there an obituary we can read?

(I'm CONSIDERING visiting this forum more often, but I don't even read the FSM forums as much as I'd like to so I don't know. We'll see. I like what this place is about though.)