You want to end up in the Beautiful Girls town? Man, what a depressing movie that was. Hutton was the only character to get out of that hole. Everyone else’s life seemed to stop like in 1986 when high school ended for these washed up drunks.

Can’t you just go back to Traverse City for a cold town where you can reflect on your “glory days”? I don’t think there is a prebuescant Natalie Portman neighbor waiting for you to lust after, like what happened to Tim Hutton.

Soon V and I will be back in Minnesota, Aaron. 3 months to go in the great Milly Willy, the Milwaukee Talkie, the Milli Vanilli. Then I can eat Pizza Luce vegan cheese toast and spicy veggie nuggets anytime I want. When are you coming back to the midwest, buddy?

Maniotes, Maniotes. Listen up. Tell you what, you go back to Gary or whatever Michiana burg it is that warms yer heart and I’ll go back to somewhere way up north.

Depressing? Well, that little town ain’t Ypsilanti or anything, but there is a beauty to the quaint quality of a small town, aside from the legions of “townie” fucks crawling the streets trying to figure out their meaningless lives. I plan on kicking many cities’ asses, and then retreating to a small hamlet, where I can focus on ice-fishing and alcoholism.

AJD,

My name’s Joe Putnam. I tried to hook up with you down in LA at Snowboarder last spring, but things didn’t work out. Not a biggy at all.

I’m glad that Erica (volcano mag editors wife) showed me your site, because it’s been a constant source of amusement hearing reading your updates. The chicago fight is a classic.

It’s also good to hear about Cinco. I did some freelance work with thos fellas back in Fall 01. All are good guys, and I credit them for really pushing me to be a better designer.

Take it easy.

JP

Andy… c’mon man. Believe it or not, some people don’t have to “get out” of their home towns. God damn it, that’s 90% of the reason everyone feels like they have to get out of their little towns - cause everyone else runs off to some stupid city to have their pathetic dreams wither away before their crying peckerwood eyes before they pack up and head back to the little town they came from. You, being the hoosier that you are, should have learned long ago to take the words of your state’s greatest export, John Cougar’s words like scripture. If’n you truly followed to the Coug like all good flatlanders should, you wouldn’t be spewing this “depressing” boondocks town blasphemy.

“Well I was born in a small town
and I can breathe in a small town
Gonna die in this small town
and that’s prob’ly where they’ll burn me.”

Ryno and Aaron,

No, I was not fronting on living in a small town or Aaron’s preference for frozen places or yokels. Living in Ypsilanti, MI, I’m around the charm of both. I was more ripping on that damn depressing movie “Beautiful Girls”. I think Aaron summed up the town AND the people with a concentration on ice fishing, alcoholism, and a hearty mix of depression/ longing for days gone by (like Matt Dillion’s rather pathertic character who couldn’t get over how cool he used to be in High School 10 years earlier).

Some small towns are cool and some people have great lives in their home town, but the “Beautiful Girls” town and people were just damn depressing. It was like the only two great things for Tim Hutton was a visit from hot stranger Uma Thurman and Tim Hotton lusting after Uma AND prebuscant Natalie Portman all the while ignoring the babe he was dating seriously.

A strange and depressing movie.

Learn how to spell Maniotes. You whiner.

?
What exactly did I “whine” about? I shared my thoughts on a movie Aaron brought up.

Oh, and “Ms. Pell” or whoever, offering an anal retentive spelling comment like that while making your own writing goofs are just silly and hypocritical. There should be a coma after “spell.” Also, “You whiner” is not a complete sentence. I really don’t think it’s a big deal in informal writing, but obviously “correcting” is important to you.

Seriously, it’s all fun and informal writing here. It’s something I do quickly and for a break from work. No need to “grade” each other or get all huffy.

Peace and Harmony,

Andy, you had better watch your language with Ms. Pell, there! That there is Aaron’s Grandmamma way back in Traverse City. He bought her an iMac for christmas and now she’s a ghost rider on this info-mation sooper highway. Fuck for that!

Really?
Being a Yahoo account and resorting to name calling, I thought for sure it was PJ.

I dunno what it is lately, I seem to have developed the mutant power to piss off anyone I come into contact with; even if I do nothing.

It’s all fun though. ;)

Peace and Harmony,

Hey Andy, Aaron’s grandmamma Ms. Pell uses a yahoo account in public to cut down on the SPAM and stuff like that. If you want to write her at her personal account, you can do so at:

poopslave689@poopslutz.com

You dicks are real close to being cut off.

Aaron, look, you created this beast, and I surely repect your authority to cut me off if you’d like. But I enjoy your site, your words, and the sense of community and closeness that it brings. I am a geek that checks in here every single day for those exact reasons. I don’t know who Ms. Pell is, and I also assume she is a fake name that some coward Navy Seal imposter was hiding behind, but I was trying to liven and lighten the situation since it was getting a bit ugly with the yelling about whining and spelling. Andy does not need to be put down for chatting in this forum, just as Ryno did not need to put me down for pointing out that no one was commenting on anything expect the new year’s fist rocking. I agree there is no need for that, but why can there be no need for a little fun as well?

So here are my suggestions for you, Master Chief of the info soopa highway DDC webshite:

Make this more of a community than it already is. Have your web master Cam set each one of us “dicks” (that hurt, by the way) up with a profile and a login password. That way there can be no using and hiding behind fake names in order to turn this thing nasty. Then we can all “join” and maybe have a smiley little icon pic of our faces next to our posts.

Or, turn off the comments section all together. I don’t think a few of us should be singled out for expressing our love and admiration for you in perhaps a confused way.

?
My mutant power seems to have target Aaron. Ugh…lately my life has been like a Bugs Bunny cartoon-no matter where I go or who I meet, someone’s looking to get pissed and/or kick my ass!

Kurt is right, we’re just having fun. I don’t think anything done was “dick” like. I was worried “Ms. Peel” WAS your grandma for a while, since for some reason I actually belived Kurt. (why the hell did I belive Kurt?)

All this because I thought “Beautiful Girls” was a crappy movie with depressing people?

Peace and Harmony,

Kurt apparently wants a Draplinustries UBB, or an open forum where people can have conversations. For sure, it is a better format for such than the comments box Aaron currently has.

But it is Aaron’s site and he can do whatever he wants with it. It took some convincing to get him to enable comments for his posts, and when he finally did people started using the feature.

The problem lies in when people regularly leave comemnts that most other people don’t want to read. While this can be entertaining the first few times, it does get old pretty fast.

I haven’t told Aaron yet, but the software running this site has an IP number blocking feature, which helps keep the trolls at bay.

Aaron can also delete comments any time he wants, but to his credit he has been leaving them up.

Jesus H. Christ.

Look at all this hot air expelled over me expelling my love for the Midwest.

And one more…

Kurt, you “hide-behind-the-cuteness-and-start-trouble” little internet roach, be a goddamn man and update yer own site more. I’d rather read about that fleabit pussycat of yers than hear Andy talking about mutant powers and shit. Goddamnit.

Now you guys got Cam involved. Let it be known, that sonofabitch is lethal, and you don’t want to rub him the wrong way.

Peace? Piece of my ass…

//draplin

ooookkkkk…
I can take a hint. Your writing was something I enjoyed. I thought this was a fun site and that you wanted people to post and interact (having a reply option gives that impression).

I make a very small amount of posts, you get pissed, so I make a few jokes about “mutant power” to try to dispel hostility, you get more pissed, and people get up in arms. Not sure why since there seems to be plenty of others posting and making jokes.

It really wasn’t a big deal, if you wanted me gone you should have just asked. This “not letting him play our reindeer games” was just rude and reminiscent of High School (or MCAD).

Sorry to bother anyone, so I’ll just leave.