A Post for the People... Better Late the Never

Good morning AMDALers! Happy Thursday.

For starters, I whole-heartedly apologize to anyone who was offended by my post last week- mainly by the *s and side-commentary. I had full intent of people realizing it was meant to stir things up and I knew I'd have to back it up with more comments to keep it going. What I didn't intend to happen was for people to take it seriously and even more so, take it off-line and blow it out of proportion. After receiving a phone call around 3:30pm about the tension it was causing amongst friends/AMDAL readers, I decided that I would take down my posts- bushleague or not, apparently it needed to happen. I didn't delete them, just unpublished them and they can all go back up if people want them to.

Very few of you know me, but those who did emailed me and asked me what was going on with AMDAL, where my posts went, why I went MIA, etc. In an effort to clear up what I write seriously and don't write seriously, I will put ^ next to things that are jokes for the remainder of this post so you can get to know me a little bit better. I can't use * b/c I need those to give call-outs and I don’t want to taint their good usage- AMDAL is 50% self-call, 50% call-out, leaving it 100% “call” and a slave to the *. Sorry for any confusion this may cause.

Why address it now? People are still asking me what the heck happened. Rather then write a bunch of emails, here's the dealie (sorry for the lengthy post also, but there are photos to make it fun- I hear those go over well):

Yes- MLR and I had a very candid email exchange about the post & it was not the first time we disagreed about something AMDAL related.*

No- of course he didn't take down my posts. You people can be such sillykins. I don't think he would ever do that -not a challenge for to put something up to see where the limits are... He asked me if I cared how he addressed the mob, I suggested he post our entire email chain. He didn't and I think it was a cop-out.

I took down my posts not for lack of pride, but for lack of purpose in the big picture which was totally and completely missed. Either you are retarded or else you actually were offended- I still feel badly about it, especially if you are in fact retarded because now I just offended you again. ^

99% of the stuff posted on here by everyone is pretty darn funny and most of it is blatantly offensive, even clever at times. When I started on AMDAL, I was the lone ranger of female posters- I think I still am actually. Probably the only thing I have in common with most of you on here is ARod and even then it's a different relationship. The purpose of the JS post was to make some outright, blatant, ridiculously one-sided statements to drive up some readership and hopefully get y'all to pass the link around to various "newbies" to AMDAL... why would I put something up that was so incendiary**? Because I want MLR & AMDAL to succeed and in blogland that happens with lots of hits and new visitors.

To be honest, I really couldn't figure out what the big deal was. After just about a week worth of dealing with the fallout, I realize that I need to clarify a few things. Add to that the past few days worth of posts and the same confusion is still present on my end of this whole "cat fight" I'm part of. To be clear: None of my posts are aimed at alienating the female fans. What still perplexes me is the following (and hopefully will open up some interesting dialogue- b/c that's what AMDAL is about- discussing politics, pop culture, friends' snafoos, photos and stories):

(A) The females who read AMDAL usually are pretty quiet. As a woman, I guess I'm not supposed to say anything that can be considered degrading to women. However, what I think is “normal” banter makes many of you angry and what you think “should be” actually offends me. Quite the predicament we’re in… kinda like this:

Wow- Y’all got pissed by the JS post. If this were a study in gender and society, we just had a breakthrough. I knew that calling out certain people and making some bold statements would get things going. I didn't expect was to be splayed out for pointing out a few "society norms" that could help JS keep a man. Was my post right or wrong? The jury is still out. But we did have a lively day on AMDAL- successful post in my book.

I stand by my actions- it was a quality post, it was funny if you could see past your knee whapping you in the face***^ and it was framed off all stuff that some of you have said to me before in person, as well as written about on AMDAL: yay for hot girls, fat girls are not attractive, girls are dumb but men don't care, and repeated most often: men like women best when they're drunk and in the bedroom/ upstairs in a frat. (see here,here, here, here, here,here, here, here and here for a few examples. I only made it through a couple months before I got tired of the ol' copy/paste).

(B) AMDAL is supposed to be a place for free speech and posting whatever you feel like when you're bored at work, on vacation, having a great time at NSACAR races^ and so on. If you’re going to get offended at me, get offended at everyone. Case in point: I have been told to “express your opinions like Scos does” on the blog. I’m sorry- I just hallucinated. You want me to express myself like Scos? The same Scos that I know?

Most of you know Scos- he's kinda an asshole. I have the luxury of knowing him for quite a few years now, so he’s become known to my friends in NYC as that “really cute asshole guy from your soccer team”^ and rarely do I take anything he says seriously because well, it's Scos. I don’t know about you, but enjoy him just the way he is.

He's called every Dartmouth girl disgusting, fat, un-hookupable, etc. - I actually don't think he has said anything nice about Dartmouth girls except for Liz because she put up with him (thanks, Liz!). In his last Random Thoughts, he offended every race in one paragraph- impressively done, Sir - and yet no one had a problem with that either. I say that good girlfriends should be domestic and take a couple digs at Jessica Simpson (who presumably none of you know, but I could stand corrected) and somehow I morphed into pure evil, setting women’s rights back 45 years.****

(C) This is a blog. If you get totally worked up about it, relax a little. It's just a blog- I think we all have to keep this in mind when we are reading & commenting- myself included- because everyone on here is someone's friend. In my case, I'm someone's girlfriend and I'll try to take into consideration that my 1950's way of life is slightly offensive to my boo’s ^ liberal, Mason Dixon crossing, Sam Adam’s drinking, iPhone using, pot smoking, tree hugging friends.^(x5) I’m sure there’s an iPhone app that could give me guidelines, but I take a blackberry.

At the end of the day, I missed you and some of you were sad I may have left AMDAL. Thanks for the concern and I'm sorry I've been busy with a funeral, that whole "career" thing, and getting someone from the Hospital's engineering staff to come fix the leak in my office which, as of this morning, is now a 2 foot x 3 foot hole in my ceiling that stuff keeps falling and dripping out of. Never a dull day.

I would've gotten back to y'all sooner but life got in the way.

However, I've still been checking AMDAL from my smartphone and spreading the good AMDAL word to those less fortunate. Oh, I've been meaning to say....

BMar: you're still an enigma and I don't think you're real. That aside, it seems we have the same sense of humor and tendency to write really long posts.

NBaum & DHO: Congrats with the cougars. DHo’s texts & updates really made for quite the enjoyable evening. I hope you were left unscathed.

Scos: Every time you write something offensive and get away with it you prove my point. Thanks. You're a great friend.

ARod: xo

MLR: You know I only want what’s best for the blog. Your song choice the other day was offensive, jerkface. And you should have let Scos' post shine for longer, it's a gem. Oh wait- your rules only apply to me, I forgot. ^ I am positive I have that Nokia phone, in red and I'll ask my mom to try to find it at home. I'll let you know if it survived the last closet & attic clean out.

WOHJR: I stand by my bullshit. I was told that what I wrote was “dangerous” “speaking for AMDAL and we are not in agreement” and “flame-fanning” that crossed an imaginary line. Get less initials and we can talk more if you need further explanation. Love your comments- keep 'em up!

Anonymous, the original: Hi.

Sars, Angry Anonymous Girl, CLord, et al: I'm pretty sure y'all might try to hurt me if we were in the same room... and who knows, we could have been and I’d have no idea. Wouldn't that be ludicrous? Don't get me wrong- I could easily take you, but I'm not really looking for a fight. That being said, if the occasion arises, I’m demanding we involve a kiddie pool filled with jello and string bikinis… to level the playing field of course. I’m sure MLR will tell you on side emails I was out of line for suggesting that in the first place, but that’s not the point- they boys would still enjoy it, just like my posts.

Much AMDAL love-
~AOG


* Although it’s like having too many cooks in the kitchen and he’s an angry, self-righteous boss, MLR does a good job at keeping the blog going with crap none of us want to read or music we want to listen to.^

** I owe that word to Makena. Must give credit where credit is due.

*** Get it- kneejerk reaction? Ha, ha ha.. no? okay, I tried.

**** As one of the few AMDALers who was alive 25+ years ago, I can assure you it wasn’t when the women’s rights movement was going on when someone mentioned it was in the comments to the JS post. 25 years ago was full of scrunchies, spandex, neon clothes and listening to Madonna, Prince, MJ while wearing more then one pair of socks at a time. And yes, it was awesome!