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warren c. e. austin
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Likes it here |
Location: Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 247
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... and focus not on endings!
We, who regularly inhabit this World so fondly nick-named "iomfatsland" by the late Robert, and known to all as The Scholar, have our reasons for our being here, whether we be visible denizens, or from the ranks of those sheltered within it's shadows.
In recent months this community has seen much discord, with bitter and acrimonious debate causing considerable angst amongst us all, resulting in any number of leave-takings.
I, for one know, that these recent events are not who we are, nor reflective of our common purpose.
I suggest that all ills of the past, should now forever and a day remain there. Renewal of this community's fellowship is long since due, and I suggest that we collectively once more enjoin all who visit here in the same caring, compassionate, loving embrace that has encouraged us all, at one time or another, to become a part of this marvellous haven so graciously provided for us through the kind auspices of our host and sponsor "Timmy", his technical wizard "MegaMan" and "bluedomino.com", the web-hosting service that keeps this community on-the-air.
To this purpose, I further suggest that perhaps each of us, in replying to this *post*, should "scribble a few lines" relating for all just a little about who each of us is, how we came to be here, and what drives us individually to want to remain.
Hopefully this will encourage others who find us to want to step forward, and want to do the very same.
I'll start the ball rolling by my making the first reply.
Warren C. E. Austin
Toronto, Canada
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warren c. e. austin
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Likes it here |
Location: Toronto, Ontario, CANADA
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 247
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I'm a 52-year old single gay male living in Toronto, Canada.
I was brought here in July, 2002, through a search made at altavista.com, using the KeyWords "Gay", "Fellowship" and
"Community". This led to my spending considerable time over the next month reading and re-reading a multitude of *posts* others had made since the Board's inception. In turn I began to wander through the rest of our host's web-site, learning much about who he was, his journey, and reading both his and others' literary contributions.
I felt a peace here, I had not found elsewhere and, albeit tentatively at first, stepped in and joined the community here.
I have remained despite my own feelings, at times, of inadequacy and alienation, because quite frankly there is nowhere else, anywhere, quite like this place, and certainly none that hold the promise of fellowship and community that A Place Of Safety offers to all who come here.
Warren C. E. Austin
Toronto, Canada
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Hi everyone.
Wow, what do I say. I'm 34, a volunteer firefighter, work for my parents, and well with the help of others here at the MB, have finally started living on my own for the first time in years. Currently confused about myself again as far as my orientation.
I found the place through Timmy's stories back in April of 2002. And well, made my first friend right here in 13 years. To bad it wasn't a couple months sooner, I would have gotten to meet him. I've since made quite a few friends here, and in my area.
Most of you know that I've been after a guy for the past 9 months which has ended about a week ago. Thanks everyone for being here to chat with.
I'm currently making plans for my first vacation in like 8 years, and am trying to meet a few of you in person on this vacation.
What keeps me here: All of you. I've said it before, your like a huge family to me. I guess on that note, I'm going to ask a question. Anyone have any news on Drew? I'd like a little update, and I'm sure others would too.
Well, I guess in closing this, I'm going to say that I'm open to meeting new friends, just send me an email, or IM me on Yahoo or AIM under the screen name "pacman0236".
Lets really fill this post. Give us a chance to meet everyone here on good terms.
Brian
To love oneself is the beginning of a life-long romance.
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e
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On fire! |
Location: currently So Cal
Registered: May 2002
Messages: 1179
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I found this place through a link in one of the Chris and Nigel stories. I followed it to see if there were any more chapters and eventually discovered the MB. I read a handful of messages before seeing one written by young man of 15 who had encountered a bully at school. It reminded me of an incident that happened at school when I was only 15. I responded and was welcomed to the community.
I was also trying to write a gay story, but was getting nowhere. I put that one aside and wrote a short story that I submitted to timmy. He didn't like it, but encouraged me to keep writing. My memory of the bully (inspired by that earlier post) kept coming back and I decided to write about that. It turned into 'Into the Lion's Den.'
I'm also one of a few here who happen to be both gay (bi really) and married. I love my wife and am faithful to her so I don't really live a 'gay' lifestyle. I never have really. I've always hidden that part of me and even tried to deny it exists. This board is really the only place where I can express that part of me and allow it to live on.
Think good thoughts,
e
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Hi!
I found timmy's site through google about a year ago and eventually found my way to the message board... For a while I just read the board and since then I've made the odd post here and there, but I thought maybe it would be already time to really introduce myself.
So, I'm 20 and a university freshman. At the moment I'm studying wood processing, but I'm trying to switch to computer science starting next fall. In my spare time I play RPGs (like Advance Dungeons & Dragons) and tinker with computers (ok, so I try... it's not my fault if they don't want to co-operate  ). I'm gay, or bi or something in between and have just recently survived my first meeting of the GSA-equivalent at my uni.
Should anyone wish to contact me, I can be found on MSN Messenger with my email address (place setras and 35 before @hotmail.com) and on AIM as Setras35...
Setras
That which is dreamed can never be lost, can never be undreamed.
-Master Li in Neil Gaiman's Sandman
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13796
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Now I think my own life story is laid out in the site for all to see. So I won't go into that except thatone part of it is relevant.
Unrequited love
I loved him for thirty five and a half years. Love, then infatuation, then obsession. I wasted my life loving a ghost. And I came "here" from Comicality's Shack Out Back, which has changed and is difficult for me to return to. I went there to find people like me.
Only there were very few. Married gay men, gay dads,were scarce as rocking horse shit. I was even pilloried for "saying you are gay when you are married" at one point over 4 years ago. I've been on the net much longer than that, though.
Talking to my Chicago author friend I learnt a lot about me.
I also found I had and have a facility for helping people to learn to find their way. Not everyone, just many people. I also have a facility for pissing some people off. Fair trade, I suppose.
I created a website. It wasn't much. After six months it was drawing 100 visitors a day, validated by http://www.nedstatbasic.net/s?tab=1&link=1&id=275097 (do remember to press BACK after you go there  . I rejoiced, but had no messageboard.
The site grew with stories that I was writing, fuelled by grief over John, the boy, now man, nine months older thname, that I fell for at 13. I was told they had some merit. To me they are my life - the way it was meant to be. And so they are real.
Then I created a board. Look back at the early pages here. That was at least sxis months after the first board, and that was trashed by "insidetheweb" when it went belly up. The board was slow. Depressingly slow. So many messageboards and so many caring people.
Then each board started to attracts its own adherents and take on its own personality. I was disappointed at first. This board was the "wrinkliest".
I go back to my life story.
No boy should walk the road I walked
That simple statement meant that the audience I wanted was not the one I was getting. Not that anyone my age or older is unwelcome, far from it, but no teenagers.
And then they arrived.
And proved that they are wiser than the previous wisest of us, whoever that was.
My ambition was to create a place that attracted decent people, no age limits, just limited by courtesy. And to help people. Especially to help people not to walk the road I walked.
That is not easy. A few people have felt alienated here. Inevitable I suppose, but regrettable, and I apologise for it. It's an impossible job to be moderator for an "unmoderated" board, beacuse you have so much danger of upsetting someone if that person perceives unfairness. We've had that. One person I will not name should come here, though he has chosen not to. I'm working out how to make him feel welcome again, though he was never unwelcome.
You see I tend to know more about people than many others, and make allowances for their needs without making those needs public. That can look unfair, sometimes.
My selfish purpose for being here is to cure me and my own feelings about being gay. Those of you who have watched this process, which I've lived very publicly, will have watched,sometimes in horro, sometimes with praise, as I have made a journey.
The love remains unrequited, but is cured. As near closure as I will ever get. That's made the stories hard to write, for that stress has gone.
There is so much more to say, and all boring as hell.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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hey everyone, I'm new so my story is fresh in all youre minds i bet. I came here throughTimmys stories becuase they rock. Im 15, and everyone has been so cool to me I love it. So umm yeah I'm here because I have friends here now so I plan on staying.
~Andy
Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?
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I first came here following the trail from Nifty almost two years ago. I finally worked up the courage to post after a few months of lurking. At that time I was very confused and unsettled because I was realizing that my interest in "gay" was far deeper than I had allowed myself to imagine. With timmy's help, and others, I have become much more comfortable with myself and picked a direction for my life (amazing for 52 yo) and am now studying like crazy to become a meaningful counselor to teens and adolescents trying to find their way into adulthood. So this MB, while sometimes disagreeable and maddening, is a place I come to every day, and find great comfort in the love and caring shown. I do not post here often, saving my words for when I feel they are appropriate and will be accepted, but I do read daily. Thanks, Warren. Thanks, timmy. I know I still own ya, e. Best of luck to e and David in their new ventures, I know you will both succeed and be deliriously happy. Timmer, we need to talk more. I miss our chats. Mihangel, please come back.
Hugs, Charlie
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trevor
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Really getting into it |
Registered: November 2002
Messages: 732
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It was around 2 years ago that I started realizing I was spending A LOT of time reading the stories here and elsewhere, and that got me to realizing I really had no interest in straight erotica or porn. Hmmm. (More on the Married/Gay thread.)
So, in a big way, timmy and his site was a big part of my sexual self-realization. For better or worse, that realization came to me in my middle years rather than my early teens.
I don't read much at all these days, sadly. Just not enough time and I'd rather spend it better understanding myself and others. So, in a way, this board is a bit of therapy as well as a social outlet. I'm quite an introvert so I've never really had a social life.
Why THIS board? Well, I do visit some others regularly, but timmy's sitting room her is much more of a home - people here tend to have a wide range of experiences and opinions yet are accepting and caring and not afraid to speak their minds honestly. That is a wonderful thing to find in life - friends who sometimes tell you what you need to hear despite what you want to hear, and share their joys, sorrows, and sometimes things we aren't proud of but need to talk about.
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Simply put, my beginnings were shit and the bits before I came here as bad. I met Tim (Dad) through another and I liked his site and the fact that he cared for ME and not my 16 yr old body. He knows so much about how I was and am so, I am sorry that I cant go into anymore.
This is a special place and it is all the more so cause a guy 10000 klms away from ME took down some pics he had that he thought would hurt me being here. No one could have beeen MORE understanding.............. Hugs Dad.........
People have a habit of changing your direction through life
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Steve
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Really getting into it |
Location: London, England
Registered: November 2006
Messages: 465
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I think I've said this before. It was timmy who drew me here. I remember that his very first comment to me (I think it was on AIM) was "that's a bitch of an email address" or something like that. This was long before this site had its present home. We became good friends, and have supported each other over the years.
Through him and through this MB I have made many very dear friends, friends that I would otherwise never have been privileged to know. Some people are friends, some have become dear friends, and one lately has become very special indeed - something that I never dreamed could happen. (And it would not have happened if it had not been for one haiku!)
Through this MB I know that I am not alone however distant I may be geographically. I have learned to live with who I am and what I am, learning from the experiences of others who are just like me in so many ways.
I have also been given the opportunity to help people in a meaningful way - both with passive support and also with positive action. I know that I do not respond to all posts: that's because there are some that I cannot relate to 'publicly'; but I read them all and sometimes respond privately. I have found that the greatest benefit this MB affords me is from the IM contacts that it has given me.
I am very grateful to timmy for making this venue possible; for 'being there' for me in good times and in bad, and for having let me get to know so many wonderful people. Nuff said.
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Let us all rejoice in beginnings ... 
Guess I'll go second. (There's a little question in here too) 
Re: Let us all rejoice in beginnings ... 
